Louis Lefebvre was born in 1918 to a schoolteacher father and an heiress mother. During the civil war, his father, who was serving on the front lines, joined the uprising against the government. His mother, however, fearing for her life and her status, set out for North Africa but was killed along the way. Eventually, Louis’s maternal aunt took him in and raised him on her estate in Oran. However, his aunt did not love him and, considering him the offspring of a communist, treated him very harshly. When he turned 18, she threw him out, and so he set off for Shanghai with the few belongings he could keep.