NOT TO BE FORGOTTEN
After completing a degree at St. Quentin University in 1918, Trocmé went to Paris to study religion at the Sorbonne. During his six years there, he was increasingly drawn to the beliefs of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR), an ecumenical pacifist organization founded in response to the horrors of the recent war in Europe, and in 1923 Trocmé helped establish IFOR’s French chapter. In 1925, seeking a course of study that emphasized social action as well as theology, he enrolled at New York’s Union Theological Seminary. Upon his return to France the following year, he took a pastorate in a northern mining village. There he brought out his pacifist beliefs in full force, giving sermons on the subject, hosting pacifist youth groups, and giving testimony at trials of conscientious objectors. 1901-1971 Called to task by the Reformed Church for violating their express ban against preaching nonviolence, Trocmé decided “These people came here for help and to take his cause somewhere that would be for shelter. I am their shepherd, and a more sympathetic to his beliefs and less shepherd does not forsake his flock,” visible to church authorities. Le Chambon André Trocmé told Vichy authorities in was the perfect spot—a small village that 1942, calmly defying their orders to stop had provided refuge for Huguenots fleeaiding the Jewish refugees who were mak- ing Catholic persecution three centuries ing their way into his village in south before. Trocmé became pastor to the central France.The Protestant pastor knew Protestants of this village, and in 1938 he that he was risking both his freedom and and a university friend, Edouard Theis, his life, but his conscience gave him no established a pacifist Christian high school other way to respond. As many as 5,000 called College Cevanol, which was soon Jewish lives would eventually be saved drawing students from around the world. because of the unshakable moral convic- Comfortably dividing his time between tions of this remarkable man and the the flourishing school and his pastorate, village he served. Trocmé had no inkling of the role he and Trocmé had arrived with his wife, his quiet village would soon be playing. Magda, and their four children in the In 1940 Nazi Germany invaded France small mountain village of Le Chambon and set up a puppet regime (the Vichy sur Lignon eight years earlier. He had government) under Marshal Petain. Antideliberately sought a remote parish where Semitic doctrines and laws were soon in he could quietly pursue his belief in place throughout the country. Petain pacifism, a belief for which he had already signed a treaty with the Nazis, agreeing gotten in trouble with the leaders of his to hand over all Jewish refugees requestReformed Church denomination and ed by the Germans. The day after Petain a belief which had been taking root in put his signature to the treaty, Trocmé him since childhood. preached the following words to his
André Trocmé
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congregation: “Tremendous pressure will be put on us to submit passively to a totalitarian ideology... The duty of Christians is to use the weapons of the Spirit to oppose the violence that they will try to put on our consciences. ... We shall resist whenever our adversaries demand of us obedience contrary to the orders of the gospel. We shall do so without fear, but also without pride and without hate.” With these words Trocmé defined the extraordinary role that the village would take over the next few years. The first line in the sand was drawn when Trocmé and his colleagues at the high school refused to pledge their loyalty to the Vichy regime. Trocmé then met with leaders of the American Friends’ Service Committee and agreed that Le Chambon would become a safe haven for Jews fleeing Nazi persecution. Homes, shops, and even public buildings became hiding places for the refugees who began arriving in hordes when word got out that Le Chambon offered sanctuary. When the Nazis or their French collaborators made sweeps through the area, the Jews were spirited away to the countryside and hidden on the farms. Not a single Jew was ever turned over to the authorities by a villager. Staff and students at the high school forged identification and ration cards for the refugees, and other villagers risked their lives to smuggle these displaced persons across the Swiss border. Le Chambon was often called the “Village of Children,” for the simple reason that it became a haven for Jewish children whose parents were rounded up by the Nazis. In July of 1942, 28,000 Jews were deported from Paris alone, and many of the children left behind were brought to Le Chambon by the Quakers and other Protestant denominations. Trocmé’s cousin Daniel set up group homes for them, and the children were educated right alongside the Continued on page 5.
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form lives. Even providing a cup of clean water can make a difference. And as Matthew 10:42 reminds us, “if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.” ■ (Note: God wills healing, but pain and suffering play an important role in our redemption process, a subject I will deal with in the next issue). Christine and Tom Sine share this column. Visit their Mustard Seed Associates website at www.msainfo.org.
ried out the orders, arresting both Trocmé and his colleague Edouard Theis. While in prison Trocmé and Theis Chambonnaise children. conducted Bible studies for fellow detainIn that same summer of 1942 the ees, most of them French communists who Vichy government officials informed had been rounded up by the thousands. Trocmé that they knew what was going Ordered to sign a loyalty oath to the on in the village.The Nazis arrived two Vichy government, the ministers refused. weeks later with buses to take the Jews Amazingly the government yielded to away, but Trocmé had warned everyone public outcry and released them after just who was hiding them, and the soldiers a few weeks, but the danger increased found the entire village packed into the once they were back in Le Chambon. church and no Jews to be found. These The men received warnings that they were raids happened again and again, and each marked for death by the Gestapo, and time the buses went away empty. One they went into hiding for the duration of villager recalled that the townspeople the war.Trocmé’s cousin Daniel was arrestwould go into the forest and sing a cer- ed along with the children he had been tain song after the soldiers left, and the hiding and taken to the Majdanek conJews would emerge, “knowing it was safe centration camp. He was gassed and to come home.” incinerated in 1944. In February 1943 Trocmé was visited After the liberation of France, André by two French policemen acting on behalf Trocmé emerged from hiding and resumed of the Nazis.Their orders were to arrest his pastorate in Le Chambon. His pacifist the minister for his activities in hiding work continued as well. He died in Jews and take him away. Ever the pacifist, 1971, and the following year his widow Trocmé invited the arresting officers to attended a ceremony in Israel where share the evening meal with him and his her husband was awarded the Medal of family, and as they dined villagers began Righteousness by a grateful people. ■ arriving with items their pastor might need in prison. The police are said to Leslie Hammond is PRISM’s copy editor. have been moved to tears, but they carNot to Be Forgotten continued from page 3.
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