These actions of rescue were unusual during the period of the Holocaust insofar as they involved the majority of the population of an entire region. Compare Trocmé’s description of having “no time to think” to that of the professor in the reading. Do you think it is unjust to turn in the Jews or not? This number included about 3,000–3,500 Jews who were fleeing from the Vichy authorities and the Germans. From December 1940 to September 1944, the inhabitants of the French village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon (population 5,000) and the villages on the surrounding plateau (population 24,000) provided refuge for an estimated 5,000 people. A Portrait of Pacifists: Le Chambon, the Holocaust, and the Lives of André and Magda Trocmé Religion, Theology and the Holocaust: Author: Richard P. Unsworth: Publisher: Syracuse University Press, 2012: ISBN: 0815651821, 9780815651826: Length: 330 pages: Subjects: Biography & Autobiography › Historical. Services . Most Huguenots in the area refused to cooperate with the Vichy government, refused to take an oath to Marshal Pétain (chief of state of the Vichy regime), and refused to ring church bells in his honor. Europe, under Hitler, was a dark place during the Holocaust. Cuando los residentes de Le Chambon se enteraban de una redada de la policía, escondían a aquellos que estaban protegiendo en la zona rural circundante. El silencio no necesariamente implicaba que todos estuvieran de acuerdo con las razones para esconder a los judíos, sino que la mayoría de las personas estaban de acuerdo en que algo debía hacerse.6. Holocaust . The rescuers of Le Chambon also drew support from people in other places. Trocmé initiated a working relationship with Burns Chalmers, a leading American Quaker, who told him that while the Quakers might be able to get internees released from the camps, there was no place for them to go, since no one was prepared to offer them shelter. The CIMADE (Comite Inter-Mouvements Aupres Des Evacues, Committee to Coordinate Activities for the Displaced), a Protestant refugee organization, was especially active in finding escape routes to Switzerland. One mountain region in France, though, offered a bright light, with rays of hope. Peter Feigl Studying in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. La historiadora Marianne Ruel Robins señala: El hecho de que toda la comunidad participara (u observara y no dijera nada), en realidad, es extraordinario. October 30, 2014. Nobody asked where you were from. The town pastor, ... After the Holocaust, he remained in the village till 1950. France . The people of Le Chambon and surrounding villages hid nearly 5,000 people fleeing Nazi occupation. Those of us who received the first Jews did what we thought had to be done—nothing more complicated. En el verano de 1943, la Gestapo ofreció una recompensa por la captura de André Trocmé, obligándolo a esconderse durante diez meses. A person doesn’t sit down and say I’m going to do this and this and that. In his will he left $2.5-million to the inhabitants of Le Chambon. The memorial museum in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. Several years later, Yad Vashem honored the village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon and the neighbouring communities with an engraved stele erected in its memorial park. Jews living at a children's home in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, France, with their director, Juliette Usach, 1941. How could we refuse them? Portraits of Jewish children who were saved by the residents of the village Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. The silence observed by the people of the Plateau was an important condition for its success, not simply because it sheltered Jews from external threats, but also because it minimized internal dissent. We would like to thank Crown Family Philanthropies and the Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation for supporting the ongoing work to create content and resources for the Holocaust Encyclopedia. As Huguenot (Calvinist) Protestants, they had been persecuted in France by the Catholic authorities from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries and later provided shelter to fellow Protestants escaping discrimination and persecution. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google, Spanish Translations from Holocaust and Human Behavior, The Weimar Republic: The Fragility of Democracy, Conformity and Consent in the National Community, The Difference between Knowing and Believing, https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007518, http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007518, Learn the History: Rescue in Peter Feigl’s Diary, What do you think allowed the people of Le Chambon to act successfully and decisively to help Jews even though, as Magda Trocmé says, they had “no time to think”? Caroline Moorehead gives a new account of Le Chambon, where Jews were given refuge by Righteous Gentiles by. Holocaust . The refugees received food, clothing, and false identity documents. Holocaust Survivors and Victims Resource Center. This pattern changed, however, after the Germans occupied southern France in November 1942. After the Vichy government was established in June 1940, André Trocmé, a committed pacifist, embarked on a campaign of peaceful civil disobedience against the authorities. A group of children who were sheltered in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a town in southern France. Quienes recibimos a los primeros judíos hicimos lo que pensamos que se debía hacer; nada más complicado. Led by Pastor André Trocmé of the Reformed Church of France, his wife Magda, and his assistant, Pastor Edouard Theis, the residents of these villages offered shelter in private homes, in hotels, on farms, and in schools. Now its residents turned their tiny mountain village into a hiding place for Jews from every part of Europe. Le Chambon has geography in its favour; it is located in a mountainous region where travel is very difficult a good part of the year. A cousin of Pastor Andre, Daniel Trocme, was in charge of the children’s home in Le Chambon, and in that capacity he saved a great number of Jewish children. What were some of those reasons? Le Chambon era una aldea protestante en una región predominantemente católica romana, que antes de, e incluso durante, la guerra era un centro turístico. Aunque fueron liberados después de 28 días, la Gestapo siguió vigilando sus actividades. Case Study Details. Cuando un oficial nazi trataba de organizar un campamento de Juventudes Hitlerianas en la aldea, los estudiantes le decían que ellos “no hacían distinción entre judíos y no judíos porque es contrario a las enseñanzas del evangelio”.3, La mayoría de los refugiados judíos eran niños; los aldeanos les proporcionaron comida, refugio y documentos de identificación falsos. And so we must know these good people who helped Jews during the Holocaust. He was indisputably the most important figure, but he did not act alone. But, in total, 19 Jews and Daniel Trocme were arrested and sent to concentration camps (where they presumably had lost their lives). Trocme was a Protestant pastor in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, France. To refrain from talking meant that one would not shame one’s neighbor for his lack of participation; it also meant that different rationales for behavior would not conflict with another, be they commitment to pacifism, nationalism, Christian charity or judeophilia. Although they were released after 28 days, the Gestapo continued to monitor their activities. Many individual heroic efforts to help refugees were made during the Holocaust. Learn about the people of Denmark’s collective effort to hide and rescue Jews from deportation during the Holocaust (Spanish available). También se cercioraron de que aquellos que habían refugiado intervinieran al máximo en la vida del pueblo, en parte para evitar despertar sospechas de otros visitantes. This reading is available in several formats. The school closed its doors in 2014 due to financial troubles and declining enrollment, three years after the rape and murder of a 14 year-old student. View the list of all donors. At that point, Magda Trocmé took over the leadership of the rescue enterprise. The villagers provided them with food, shelter, and fake identity papers. A post-Holocaust ethical community shares the burden of remembering and, as a personal friend and intellectual colleague of Philip Hallie, I consider it an honor to continue the narration of the story he first told of the people in the area of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon who rescued Jews during the Nazi Occupation. It is the wonderful story of Le Chambon, a poor French Protestant (Calvinist) village of 3,000 that successfully hid 2,500-5,000 Jews from the Gestapo and Vichy for the entire occupation. No había una decisión que tomar. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. The village of Le Chambon and its neighboring villages offer an exceptional example of a collective rescue effort during the Holocaust. The Vivarais Plateau was liberated by the Free French First Armored Division on September 2-3, 1944. Le Chambon-sur-Lignon and its surrounding villages sheltered thousands of refugees during the Holocaust. There was an extensive network of sympathizers throughout the region who could be called upon for help with communication and organization. Which organizations and individuals aided and protected Jews from persecution between 1933 and 1945? It examines how and why the town opposed the government and saved so many lives. Even the children were involved. Una persona no se sienta y dice: voy a hacer esto, y esto, y lo otro. TTY: 202.488.0406, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC. Related Content. Sin embargo, en Le Chambon, una aldea al sur de Francia, toda la comunidad intervino en el rescate. On June 29, 1943, the German police raided a local secondary school and arrested 18 students. All over Europe, a small number of individuals tried to save Jews. Many in Le Chambon regarded the Jews as a “chosen people” and, when they escorted those who were endangered 300 kilometers to the Swiss border, the guides were aware that they were following the same route that their persecuted Huguenot brethren had traveled centuries earlier. My research focuses on Le Chambon and its leaders. When Magda Trocmé reflected on her choices years after the war, she said, “When people read this story, I want them to know that I tried to open my door. Eventually, he became a rich man. There were many people in the village who needed help. The operation saved thousands of refugees, including about 5,000 Jews. In the reading, historian Marianne Ruel Robins mentions other factors that may have influenced individual villagers’ choices to participate in the rescue of Jews, besides exceptional moral behavior. Le Chambon-sur-Lignon is a Protestant village in Haute-Loire in southern France. Entre 1940 y 1944, Le Chambon y otras aldeas cercanas sirvieron de refugio a más de 5,000 personas que huían de la persecución de los nazi, de los cuales, aproximadamente, 3,500 eran judíos.1 Magda Trocmé, la esposa del pastor local, explica cómo empezó todo. Until November 1942, it lay in the Unoccupied Zone of France. Finalmente, me gustaría decirles a las personas: ‘Recuerden que en sus vidas habrá muchas circunstancias en las que necesitarán algo de coraje, algo de determinación propia, no con respecto a otras personas sino con respecto a ustedes mismos’. Le Chambon sur Lignon 1941-1944 (The Protestant Mountain) A Protestant community, which became a haven for Jews, many of whom were children, was situated in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon and tiny villages around it. Trocmé assured Chalmers that his village, Le Chambon, would take in refugees. El asunto era: ¿Creen que somos hermanos, o no? Among them were Spanish Republicans who had fled internment camps, anti-Nazi Germans, and many young Frenchmen seeking to avoid deportation to Germany for forced labor. Between 1940 and 1944, Le Chambon and other nearby villages provided refuge for more than 5,000 people fleeing Nazi persecution, about 3,500 of whom were Jews.1 Magda Trocmé, the wife of the local minister, explained how it began. Whenever the villagers got wind of impending visits by the Vichy police or German Security Police raids, they moved the refugees further into the countryside, escorting some to the Swiss border. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum . 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