In 1943, the Gestapo finally caught Raymond Aubrac β one of France's most wanted Resistance leaders. He was sentenced to death. His execution was days away.
His wife Lucie was six months pregnant.
Most people would have hidden. Would have grieved quietly and prayed for a miracle. Lucie Aubrac did something else entirely. She obtained forged identity papers, constructed a cover story, and walked straight into the office of Klaus Barbie β the man history would remember as the Butcher of Lyon β and convinced him to grant her a visit with the condemned man.
She wasn't there to say goodbye.
She was memorizing guard positions. Counting minutes. Mapping the route the prison truck would take.
On October 21, 1943, that truck rolled through the streets of Lyon carrying Raymond and other prisoners toward what should have been the end. Lucie had spent weeks quietly assembling a team of Resistance fighters, planning an ambush with the precision of a military operation. When the truck reached the ambush point, the team struck β fast, coordinated, and without hesitation.
In the chaos of gunfire and confusion, Raymond Aubrac was pulled free.
Lucie β visibly, unmistakably pregnant β had organized every detail of his liberation.
They went into hiding. Weeks later, Lucie gave birth to their daughter in a safe house while German forces searched for them across France. When liberation finally came, the Aubracs didn't merely survive β they rebuilt.
Raymond became a celebrated engineer and entered public life. Lucie became a historian, pouring decades into ensuring that the women of the French Resistance β so often unnamed, so easily forgotten β were written permanently into the record. They raised three children. They traveled the world. They argued and laughed and grew old together.
When journalists asked Lucie, years later, what had compelled her to risk everything that October day, she didn't hesitate.
"He was my husband. What else would I do?"
Lucie Aubrac passed away in 2007 at the age of 94. Raymond β who had once needed a commando team to be freed from a German prison β lived on until 2012, reaching 97 years old. In his final years, he continued speaking publicly about the Resistance, about memory, about the obligation to tell the truth.
They had been married for 64 years.
Not a love story built on grand gestures or perfect circumstances. A love story built in occupied France, in safe houses and forged documents and a prison truck ambush on a Lyon street β forged in fire, and never broken.
True love doesn't wait for rescue. Sometimes, it does the rescuing
Firstly, thank you for leaning forward and acknowledging the moment. I appreciate that you support non-aligned community initiatives. That's what I always thought until a significant shareholder and son of the founder implied otherwise.
However, you are not condemning Mark's attacks on me, including using a misogynistic term (bitch), repeatedly, prior to this moment. Dischem cannot place the two of us on the same footing or treat our statements as equivalents. He initiated the attack with his misogyny and a blatant lie that maligned me personally and professionally. I also note your safe avoidance of mentioning him by name and referencing the significant words that were an activator of my response: I.e that I received money from his mommy and you as an institution. Until you make it clear that this is false, and that a significant shareholder calling me a bitch is unacceptable, then your words below are.....okay, I guess, but lack moral conviction and steadfastness.
The son of Dischem founder is a pathetic and rabid Zionist like his parents.
Redi Tlhabi criticised Netanyahu and Israel and this was his response.
He deactivated his account afterwards.
It may be time to boycott @Dischem
Hello. Some of you mean well and I always appreciate and reflect on your counsel. But not always. For months, @Dischem 's Mark Saltzman (who has now deleted his account ( called me a bitch. I did nothing. I assumed he was another angry troll. I didn't know who he was until he outed himself and talked about his mommy's money.
Last week someone accused me of taking CR17 money. They retracted and apologized. Previously it's CIA, Stellenbosch Mafia, USAID and mysterious "handlers." I let it go so many times. So when you advise me to be restrained you must know I HAVE BEEN restrained. But there are days when things must be addressed. Today is one of them.
Presumably @Dischem is familiar with Mark's vocabulary and they know that he exercises his freedom of speech by calling people who disagree with him "BITCHES" for opposing Israel. I do hope that unlike Mark, they don't demand that their philanthropic interventions are conditional to South Africans supporting Israel. We don't have to. But I can live with the son of the founder of @Dischem and a major shareholder calling me a bitch. Repeatedly. But don't accuse of taking any money that I have not earned. I have also lent my name, time and access to worthy courses. Including for the some of the people who now call me antisemitic. The difference between me and them is that I don't think contributing to OUR South Africa must be transactional and conditional on them bending to my will. In conclusion, please do call me a bitch any time you want. But do not lie about serious things. I won't play along.
Almost 5,000 people waited for hours in the rain at a swabbing event in Worcester, to get tested to see if they were a match to help save the life of a five-year-old boy fighting a rare cancer, after his parents asked for help
@RealLifeGold Hello, please could you help me amplify this? My sister, Dineo Seboni (25), is missing.
She was last seen yesterday, 15 April, in Diepkloof Extension getting into an Uber for work.
A share from your account would mean the world and could help us find her. Thank you