Le Chambon-sur-Lignon: Hide Them or Hand Them Over?
is pastor of the Reformed Church of , a village perched on the Vivarais-Lignon plateau, in the . The population, mostly Protestant, descends from the Huguenots persecuted under the old regime and keeps alive the memory of the refuge once given to its own. Since the armistice, the southern zone has fallen under the regime, which has enacted its own anti-Jewish laws and collaborates with the measures sought by the occupier.
In the winter of 1942, refugees pour onto the plateau: Jewish families fleeing the round-ups, foreigners interned or threatened with internment, children separated from their parents. They seek a roof, false papers, a school, sometimes a way across to nearby Switzerland. To shelter them is to defy the law openly: the gendarmerie carries out censuses, demands lists, organises checks, and the authorities expect the pastor to preach obedience and report the foreigners present in his parish.
Trocmé must decide how to act towards those who arrive: open the houses, farms, and boarding homes of the plateau to hide the refugees at the risk of arrest; comply with 's demands by registering and handing over the foreigners as the administration requires; or set up discreet networks to smuggle the hunted across to the Swiss border.
Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, winter 1942, pastor of a Protestant village: what should be done with the Jewish refugees knocking at the presbytery door?
and the neighbouring communes of the Vivarais-Lignon plateau became one of the great places of refuge in France: during the Occupation, their inhabitants hid and protected several thousand refugees, including many Jewish children, in farms, boarding houses, and families, providing false papers and food and guiding many of them all the way to Switzerland. , his wife Magda, and pastor Édouard Theis led this collective rescue in defiance of 's laws; Trocmé was arrested and later forced into hiding. Yad Vashem recognised as one of the Righteous Among the Nations and honoured the whole community of Le Chambon for having saved Jews destined for deportation and death.
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