André and Magda Trocmé
André Trocmé (also spelled Troemé; April 7, 1901 – June 5, 1971) and his wife Magda (née Grilli; 1901, Florence, Italy – 1996-10-10) are a couple of French Righteous Among the Nations. André served as a pastor in the French town of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. In his preaching he spoke out against discrimination as the Nazis were gaining power in neighboring Germany and urged his Protestant congregation to hide Jewish refugees from the Holocaust of the Second World War.
In 1938, André Trocmé and Reverend Edouard Theis founded the Collège Lycée International Cévenol in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, France, which he used to hide thousands of Jews during the Nazi Persecution.
When France fell to Nazi Germany, his mission to resist the Nazis became increasingly important. Inspired by spiritual leader Charles Guillon, André and Magda Trocmé organized the rescue of between 3000 to 5000 Jews fleeing the deportation efforts of the Nazis implementation of their Final Solution. Following the establishment of the Vichy regime during the French occupation, Trocmé asked his congregation to shelter "the people of the Bible". Trocmé's efforts led to Le Chambon and surrounding villages becoming a unique haven in Nazi-occupied France. Trocmé and his church members helped their town develop ways of resisting the dominant evil they faced. Together they established first one, and then a number of "safe houses" where Jewish and other refugees seeking to escape the Nazis could hide. These houses received contributions from Quaker, Roman Catholic, American Congregationalist, Jewish, and World Council of Churches groups, and from the national governments of Sweden and Switzerland, to buy food and supplies for the fleeing refugees.
Under André and Magda's leadership, families were located who were willing to accommodate Jewish refugees, members of the community reported to the railroad station to gather the arriving refugees, and the town's schools were prepared for the increased enrollment of new children. Many private families also took in children whose parents had been shipped to concentration camps in Germany. Trocmé refused to accept the definitions of those in power. "We do not know what a Jew is. We know only men," he said when asked by the authorities to produce a list of the Jews in the town. [Hallie, 1979, p. 103] Between 1940 and 1944 when World War II ended in Europe, Trocmé estimated that about 2500 Jewish refugees were saved by the tiny village of Le Chambon, because the people refused to give in to what they considered to be the illegitimate legal, military, and police power of the Nazis.
These activities eventually came to the attention of the anti-Jewish Vichy regime. Authorities and "security agents" were sent to perform searches within the town, all of which were unsuccessful. When Georges Lamirand, a minister in the Vichy government, made an official visit to Le Chambon on August 15, 1942, Trocmé expressed his opinions to him. Days later, gendarmes were sent into the town to locate "illegal" aliens. Amidst rumors that Trocmé was soon to be arrested, he urged his congregants to "do the will of God, not of men". He also spoke of the Biblical passage Deuteronomy 19:2-10, which speaks of the entitlement of the persecuted to shelter. The gendarmes were unsuccessful, and eventually left the town.
In February 1943, Trocmé, along with a teacher Roger Darcissac and the Reverend Edouard Theis, were arrested. Sent to Saint-Paul d’Eyjeaux, an internment camp near Limoges, Trocmé was pressured for five weeks to sign a commitment to obey all government orders. He refused, and following his release, he went underground, where he was still able to keep the rescue and sanctuary efforts running smoothly.
In January 1971, the Holocaust memorial center in Israel, Yad Vashem, recognized André and Magda Trocmé as Righteous Among the Nations.
Quote
- "Look hard for ways to make little moves against destructiveness" - Practicing Theology: Beliefs and Practices in Christian Life by Miroslav Volf, Dorothy C. Bass p. 158; Lest Innocent Blood be Shed by Philip Hallie (New York, Harper and Row, 1979), p. 85
External links
- The Chambon Foundation
- Whosoever Saves a Single Life . . .
- Jesus and the Nonviolent Revolution by André Trocmé (1961) Charles E. Moore, editor; Orbis Books. Framington, PA: The Bruderhof Foundation Inc. 2004.
- Hallie, Philip P (1979). Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed: The Story of Le Chambon and How Goodness Happened There. New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 0-06-011701-X.
- Weapons of the Spirit (Les armes de l'esprit) (Documentary). USA/France. 1989.
{{cite AV media}}: Unknown parameter|director=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|distributor=ignored (|publisher=suggested) (help) Aired in the USA by the PBS. - Trocme, Pastor Andre and his wife, Magda Yad Vashem web site.
- Le Chambon by Elizabeth Kirkley Best.
- Pastor André Trocmé, at the website of The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous
- NYT A French Town's Story, New York Times
- TIME Good Neighbors, Frank Trippett, Monday, May. 21, 1979
- André and Magda Trocmé at the Swarthmore College Peace Collection