There Are Only People

Prior to December 1940 the sleepy little village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, France had an approximate population of 5,000 people. The villages on the surrounding plateau had about 24,000. The population of the area was not large, nor would we consider it tiny, but it had something few other places had…Pastor André Trocmé of the Reformed Church of France, his wife Magda, and his assistant, Pastor Edouard Theis. You might not think that is such an amazing thing, but some 5,000+ Jews during the Holocaust would disagree with you vehemently. Pastor Trocmé was a visionary or maybe a prophet, who saw what was coming under the insane leadership of Adolf Hitler. One day, he preached a sermon in which he stated, “there are no Jews, there are only people.” He taught his parishioners not to allow the Nazi distinction between races to cloud their spirits. So, when the time came to hide the Jewish refugees, there were no questions asked. The people did what they needed to do as if they were one person. No one complained, no one hesitated, and no one told the authorities…ever!! The village became known as a “safe haven” for all those persecuted by the Nazis.

Because of the bravery of these villagers, many Jews, often just children were spared the horrors of “the final solution” that had been mandated by Hitler. The actual numbers of those saved or at least housed is unknown. There was no way to really keep track. The people just knew that they had to do the right thing and try to save these people. Ther came a knock on the door and when opened, they saw a poor, frightened, and starving person, and they took them in, fed them, and hid them. Yes, not everyone survived those wretched years. Some succumbed to illness, because there was no way to get medicine or doctors, but even those who died, knew that they have been loved by those who helped them, and they were grateful.

Many amazing events took place during those horrific years in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. Times were tough. Rationing was in place, and the Jews had no ration cards. So, the town folk shared their own rations, meaning that everyone was a “little hungry” at times. The children that were housed there were taught to be silent, not to move about, not to cry or cough. Their utter silence and invisibility were vital to their survival…theirs and their benefactors. The village opened their homes, barns, hotels, farms, and schools. They created fake identification and ration cards for refugees, and sometimes even guided them across the border into neutral Switzerland. Such rescue efforts were rare during the Holocaust, especially since they involved most of the people from an entire region. That made this incident one of great importance.

Le Chambon-sur-Lignon is a village on the Vivarais Plateau in the Haute-Loire départment of the Auvergne, a hilly region of south-central France. Until November 1942, the village was part of the Unoccupied Zone of France. The history of Le Chambon and its surroundings shaped how its residents acted during the Vichy regime and the German occupation. As Huguenot (Calvinist) Protestants, they had faced persecution by Catholic authorities in France from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries and had a tradition of sheltering fellow Protestants fleeing discrimination. Many in Le Chambon saw the Jews as the “chosen people,” and when they guided those in danger 300 kilometers to the Swiss border, they knew they were retracing the same path their persecuted Huguenot ancestors had taken centuries earlier. These people knew people who had been in the situation the Jews found themselves, and they didn’t want a repeat of history.

The rescue effort took shape in the winter of 1940, when Pastor Trocmé reached out to the American Friends Service Committee (Quakers) in Marseille to help provide relief supplies for the 30,000 foreign Jews imprisoned in internment camps across southern France. Pastor Trocmé began working with Burns Chalmers, a prominent American Quaker, who explained that while the Quakers might manage to secure releases from the camps, there was nowhere for the freed individuals to go, as no one was ready to offer them shelter. Pastor Trocmé stepped up and brought an entire village and its surrounding area with him. It was not easy. Everyone went hungry, everyone took a huge chance, but everyone agreed with the action taken. They couldn’t have lived with themselves if they hadn’t helped.

Pastor Trocmé assured Chalmers that his village, Le Chambon, would take in refugees. Chalmers was able to negotiate the release of many Jews, especially children, from some of the southern camps, including Gurs, Les Milles, and Rivesaltes. I’m not sure how they pulled off such a release, but because of that, more Jews and others in danger also found their way to the town as individuals or in small groups, simply because word of mouth identified the Vivarais Plateau as a hospitable place of refuge. Most of the refugees who came there were foreign-born Jews without French citizenship, and many of them were children. They were scattered across small, remote villages and farms in the mountains around Le Chambon. The OSE (Oeuvre de Secours Aux Enfants, or Children’s Aid Society), a French-Jewish childcare group, played a key role in bringing the children to Le Chambon and placing them in private homes, boarding houses, and seven dedicated shelters funded for their care. Groups like the Quaker organization, American Congregationalists, the Swiss Red Cross, and even governments such as Sweden helped fund the houses. Refugees were given food, clothing, and false identity papers. The children in hiding went to school and joined youth groups. To keep up appearances and hide the presence of Jews, they often attended Protestant services, though Trocmé also encouraged them to hold secret Jewish ceremonies. In essence, they were hiding in plane site…or at least some of them were. Others had to hide in attics, barns, and cellars. They had to keep very still, not speak or cry, and never show their faces in the main home. Nevertheless, it was the safest they had felt or been in a long time.

When word spread that the Vichy police or German Security Police were coming, villagers would move refugees farther into the countryside, sometimes escorting them all the way to the Swiss border. The Protestant refugee group CIMADE played a major role in finding escape routes to Switzerland, with one well-used path running from Le Chambon to Annemasse and across the border. As the Vichy authorities and Germans pursued them, more refugees, including Spanish Republicans escaping internment camps, anti-Nazi Germans, and young Frenchmen dodging forced labor, joined the Jews seeking safety in Le Chambon. The area also became a haven for French resistance members, whose activity grew in 1942. The unity of the locals often led Vichy officials to act cautiously, even giving informal warnings before searches. Then in November 1942, things changed after Germany occupied southern France. On February 13, 1943, French police arrested Pastors Trocmé and Theis, along with primary school headmaster Roger Darcissac, and sent them to a camp near Limoges. They were released after 28 days and resumed rescue work until late 1943, when the threat of re-arrest forced them into hiding, at which point Magda Trocmé stepped in to lead the effort. These brave people refused to give up.

Unfortunately, on June 29, 1943, everything blew up, when German police raided a local secondary school, arresting 18 students. Five were identified as Jews and sent to Auschwitz, where they died. Their teacher, Daniel Trocmé (Pastor Trocmé’s cousin) was also arrested and deported to the Lublin/Majdanek concentration camp, where the SS killed him. Roger Le Forestier, Le Chambon’s physician known for helping Jews obtain false papers, was arrested and executed on August 20, 1944, in Montluc prison on orders from the Gestapo in Lyon. The Free French First Armored Division liberated the Vivarais Plateau on September 2–3, 1944. It was a devastating loss!! One that none of the village people would ever get over.

In 1990, Israel honored all the residents of Le Chambon and nearby villages as “Righteous Among the Nations,” an award given to non-Jews who went above and beyond for the “chosen people.” By December 2007, 40 individuals from the area had received the designation. French President Jacques Chirac praised the village’s heroism during a visit on July 8, 2004, and in January 2007 the French government paid tribute to its inhabitants in a ceremony at the Pantheon in Paris. From December 1940 to September 1944, Le Chambon and surrounding villages stood as an extraordinary example of collective rescue during the Holocaust. It was a time that should never be forgotten…a time when an incredible group of people came together and sacrificed their own safety, and sometimes their lives, to save people they didn’t even know.