Domenach-Lallich was the third child in a family of nine children. Her father was an engineer with a local cable company and her brother,
Jean-Marie Domenach, was also a resistance fighter. The Domenach family was
Roman Catholic and part of the social Catholicism movement. Domenach-Lallich was a student in
Lyon when the war broke out. Denise Domenach went to live with her maternal grandparents in
Bourg-en-Bresse before moving back to Lyon. Jean-Marie joined the resistance with his friend, Gilbert Dru. Denise joined the Resistance in 1940. In October 1943, she entered the
Lumière University Lyon 2 and was part of the
Jeunes chrétiens combattants (JCC). In May 1944, she was appointed as leader of the
Mouvements Unis de la Résistance. Wanted by the
Gestapo, she went into hiding in
Hauterives. After the
Liberation of Paris, she was a part of the Mouvements de libération nationale. At the same time, she met Bernard Lallich, who was awarded the
Croix de Guerre for his wartime service. They married in 1946. She finished school and became a professor of literature. She eventually published her notebooks documenting her Resistance experiences in 1999. An amphitheater at Collège La Tourette in Lyon was named in her honor. In 2018, the
Centre d'histoire de la résistance et de la déportation in Lyon presented
Génération 40, des jeunes dans la tourmente, which extracted transcripts from her diary. ==Family==