And There Was Light

Can we continue to embrace life, even through the hardest times? Jacques Lusseyran, a French underground resistance leader during the Second World War, is one of those rare, inspirational people whose joy for life endures more than the story of everything he overcame.

Jacques lost his sight in an accident when he was eight years old. At sixteen, he formed a resistance group in Nazi-occupied France, using his heightened senses to select the best recruits.

Eventually Jacques was arrested and sent to Buchenwald concentration camp. After a fifteen-month incarceration, Jacques was one of thirty to survive from an initial transport of two thousand resistance fighters.

The book that helped inspire All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, And There Was Light is the compelling and moving autobiography of a man who lost his sight and overcame incarceration and betrayal. But above that, it’s the story of Jacques' remarkable love for life.