The Protestant welcome to the first Jewish refugee starts
Europe's most important rescue of Nazis' victims, Spanish Republicans, opponents of the French puppet government and especially, Jews.
# # #Protestants maintain themselves in isolated regions, such as these mountains of south-central France. The rural population of 5,000
is roughly the same number as the people saved.
Diaconesses de Reuilly
Dogs bark if strangers appear, which lets refugees hide should police raid.
The burg with which the rescue is associated: Le Chambon-sur-Lignon (pop. 15,000 in 1940). The overwhelmingly Protestant population remembered its own persecution and welcomed the hunted, including Catholic priests during the Revolution.
Another element, the engagement of the dozen pastors. Particularly eloquent: André Trocmé, pastor of Le Chambon.
A descendant of the valley proprietor the last page mentions, he is sent to this obscure parish as punishment for his pacifism.
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| The Bible is in Washington's Holocaust Museum. |
"Weapons of the spirit,"
the first sermon of the Resistance
On the Sunday after the signing of the Armistice, Trocmé preaches resistance with "weapons of the spirit."
He, his wife Magda (who says, "Come in, come in!" when a refugee knocks on their door), his associate Edouard Thies and the schoolmaster Roger Darcissac mobilize the population to succor all who flee the Nazis.
It accepts immediately and unanimously.
Trocmé asks his cousin, Daniel Trocmé, to head a shelter for 20 children whose parents have been deported. Daniel tells his parents why he accepts:
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| Weapons of the Spirit |
Since this morning the die is cast. André has written that he counts on me.
Le Chambon means for me a kind of contribution to rebuilding our world [...] a positive response to a vocation, a call that is quite intimate and almost religious — in a way even entirely religious — the future will say whether I was equal to the task or not — and will say so only to me, for it is not a matter of worldly success [...].
I choose it so as not to be ashamed.
-- September 9, 1942
Later he describes
seeking clothes for the children in neighboring towns...
taking care of their health, carving them wooden shoes, dealing with the authorities, handling the accounting,* making the heating system work, keeping in touch with parents when there are any, telling stories, directing a chorale, managing the sequels of a fire. André adds later that he would bring them hot soup at school at noon and at night cut up old tires to make soles for shoes. At first Daniel says that he often feels alone but later, "We are coming together as a family."
*Funds came from Quaker, pacifist and Jewish associations by roundabout routes.
When the couple heading a refuge for young men finds the job too dangerous and retires, Daniel agrees to manage it as well.
The young men at the refuge.
At dawn on May 23, 1943, the Gestapo surrounds the refuge.
Daniel is at the children's home when a boy rushes up on his bike, shouting "Mr. Trocmé, the Germans are here. Leave!" He could escape into the forest. But he goes to the young men instead. He is responsible for them.
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Henry Aubin
The children's refuge, a few steps from the forest.
The Gestapo arrests them all. Daniel dies in the gas chamber of Maïdenek, an extermination camp in Poland. He was 32.
-- This information comes from an account based on Daniel's letters
written by his brother, Charles Trocmé, in 1976.
written by his brother, Charles Trocmé, in 1976.
Protestant silence: "We do not praise people for doing their duty."
-- The Deputy Mayor at Le Chambon,
explaining why no street or plaque honors a rescuer by name,
though such plaques are common in France.
though such plaques are common in France.
Others tell the story:
.
an award-winning documentary made when one could still interview the rescuers.
-- Daniel's choice: full chapter on web,
"We only know men: the rescue of Jews in France during the Holocaust"
by Patrick Henry, 2007.
-- Magda et André Trocmé, figures de résistance,
by Pierre Boismorand, 2007.
-- Le Village des Justes by Emmaneul Deun, 2013
The Plateau by Maggie Paxson, 2019
Forward, 2019.
The Jewish survivors gave the town a plaque
and a small museum opened in 2014.
But the population still says nothing,
and a small museum opened in 2014.
But the population still says nothing,
because they only did their duty.
André and Daniel Trocmé are Catherine Aubin's uncles.
* * *
Next,André and Daniel Trocmé are Catherine Aubin's uncles.
* * *
The end of brakes on gain — almost
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