Lucie Bernard was born in Paris in 1912 into a working-class family and pursued her studies despite early hardships. In the 1930s, she joined the International Youth Circle and the Communist Party, drawn to their pacifist and antimilitarist ideals. In 1938, she became a professor in Strasbourg, where she met and married Raymond Samuel.

After France fell to Nazi Germany in 1940, Lucie organised her husband’s escape from captivity in the Saarland. The couple settled in Lyon and became deeply involved in the resistance. That autumn, Lucie joined the group “La Dernière Colonne,” which later became Libération-Sud. Raymond also took part under the pseudonym “Aubrac.”

In May 1941, Lucie contributed to the creation of the clandestine newspaper Libération. In 1942, the Nazis occupied the southern zone, including Lyon. On 21 June 1943, Raymond Aubrac was arrested in Caluire along with Jean Moulin. Lucie once again managed his escape, organising an attack on the van transporting him from Gestapo headquarters to Montluc prison.

The Aubracs reached London on 8 February 1944 and returned to France in the summer of that year. Lucie then helped establish the Liberation Committees and served on the Consultative Assembly of the Provisional Government. In October 1945, she published La Résistance (Naissance et Organisation), presenting her vision of the movement and recounting personal experiences.

After the war, she remained active in the Communist Party and supported the pacifist movement founded by her husband. Lucie Aubrac is remembered as a symbol of courage and as an example of the significant role women played in the French Resistance.