Léon Graulich
During the occupation, Rector Graulich used his imagination to prevent Nazis from teaching at the university, to protect students from compulsory labor in Germany, and to defend scientific equipment and premises from German incursions. However, the bombings and fires of 1944 destroyed the Val-Benoît buildings, the Institute of Physiology and the library of the École supérieure des sciences commerciales et économiques...
Born in Verviers on August 3, 1887, Léon Graulich was proclaimed Doctor of Law by the University of Liège in 1908. He became a lecturer in 1912. The war interrupted his academic activities, but he was appointed Professor Extraordinaire in 1919, and became a member of the ordinariate in 1922.
45 generations of students followed his brilliant teaching. In addition to civil law, he taught private international law for thirty years, from 1927 to 1957. Let's simply remember that he was one of the professors who ensured the renown of the University of Liège, and that the Law Faculty library that bears his name today is a living sign of this memory.
Rector between 1939 and 1947, this man of law was a member of the Resistance during the Nazi occupation. Academic activities were maintained, but under the vigilance and pressure of the occupying forces. From then on, the rector waged his war, countering the tyrannical authority in three directions: the first was to avoid corrupting the professoriate through the intrusion of Nazi henchmen. Emeritus professors suddenly became irreplaceable, given their pedagogical skills, and their work was prolonged, especially as Walloon youth who had fought in the war remained locked up in prison camps. The second was how to deal with two German teachers parachuted in by the occupying forces to give free lessons. They were hardly ever attended by students, as the empty auditorium policy was unstoppable. The third concerns a more serious problem, likely to affect first-year students from 1943 onwards: compulsory work in Germany. Student associations organized to counter this measure. Rector Graulich worked with them to organize the theft of student registration documents from his own office on the night of March 17, 1943. What could be done without these lists, which deprived the occupying forces of precise data on the student population?
To avoid generating new lists when preparing for exams, these were presented clandestinely, sometimes in cellars, by students who had officially become ghosts.
During the Occupation, Léon Graulich set up a social service, with the support of the Patrimoine de l'Université, to help students, particularly those who had nevertheless been identified for deportation. Destitute and illegal in their own country, Léon Graulich never let them down. This service continued after the war to the present day, in the spirit of helping students in difficulty.
Finally, in 1942, when the Université Libre de Bruxelles closed its doors, hundreds of ULB students were welcomed without hesitation by Léon Graulich to continue their studies at the Université de Liège.
In 1947, ill, he was succeeded by Adolphe Braas , who completed his term of office.
1947 also saw the rebuilding of the Val-Benoît site, ushering in a new era for the University of Liège, while Léon Graulich continued to teach for another ten years, until his emeritus in 1957. His departure will be honored with emotion. He died in 1966, no doubt with a sense of duty accomplished.
Photo: Léon Graulich, photography, n.d., Wittert ULiège Museum, inv. 4192
