|
| Affiliation | Nonpartisan |
|
| Name | André Trocmé |
| Address |
, , France |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
April 07, 1901 |
| Died |
June 05, 1971
(70 years) |
| Contributor | Thomas Walker |
| Last Modifed | Juan Croniqueur
Sep 25, 2022 03:43pm |
| Tags |
Protestant -
|
| Info | An important story of nonviolent resistance during World War II, a story that should be taught and retaught by the Church, involves the Protestant community of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in central France, a Huguenot town of about 3,000 residents, during its occupation by Nazi Germany in 1940-1944. Villagers in Le Chambon placed their lives on the line in order to offer safe haven to Jewish, Eastern European, and other refugees from the Nazi campaign of extermination. These people of faith serve as a model of Christian discipleship in a time of peril.
Upon Marshal Philippe Pétain’s signing of the Armistice in 1940 – a treaty that created the Vichy government of France following its military defeat by Germany – André Trocmé, the pastor of the Huguenot community of Le Chambon, preached to his congregation that “the duty of Christians requires acts of resistance through weapons of the spirit.” Instead of accepting Vichy collaboration with the Nazis, Trocmé encouraged the Chambonnais to refuse to “give up their consciences, to participate in hatred, betrayal and murder.” The community responded by reaching out to their Jewish brothers and sisters.
Beginnings
Trocmé and his wife Magda moved to Le Chambon in 1934 and founded a secondary school promoting peace in 1938. As Pastor, Trocmé used his influence to teach his belief in the God-given dignity of all human persons. According to Trocmé, Jesus taught the basic truth: “Because of the importance of the human person… Jesus (a) sacrificed his earthly life for one man in the street and (b) sacrificed his perfection in order to save one single man. Salvation has been accomplished without any regard to the moral value of the saved man.” He asserted that he “did not know what a Jew was; he knew only men.” Trocmé viewed the human person as being reflective of God’s generous love in creation. He attested that the main distinction among people is between those who believe that those in need are as precious as they themselves are, and those who do not believe this. Trocmé argued that “decent” people who fail to respond to the humiliation and destruction of others around them because of indifference or cowardice pose the most dangerous threats to the world. Aware of the immediate and real suffering around him, André Trocmé regarded assisting Jews as part of God’s work.
For the Chambonnais, responding to the Jewish plight came naturally, in part because of their own history of persecution by the French king and the Catholic Church. In the first half of the 16th century, Huguenots had begun to arrive in Le Chambon, a place of security for Protestants.
The Chambonnais, led by the Trocmés, however, did not veer from their commitment to nonviolence. Although other resisters to the Nazi regime, such as the Communists, regularly condemned the Chambonnais for their nonviolent philosophy, André Trocmé responded that violence contributed to the force of the enemy: “Why in war—and we are in a state of war with Vichy and Germany—that’s aiding and abetting the enemy! You’re peddling the same old opiate of the people that has kept the masses from moving forward to social justice.” Looking to Jesus as the embodiment of forgiveness of sins, André Trocmé refused to act as an agent of violence.
Acts of Resistance
André Trocmé’s preparation of Le Chambon as a safe haven for Jews began with his encounter with Burns Chalmers, a Quaker responsible for helping secure safety for Jewish refugees during the French Occupation. Trusted by the Vichy government to care for victims of war, the Quakers also brought supplies and consolation to people in internment camps. Meeting Chalmers in Nîmes in December of 1940, André Trocmé expressed his interest in working with the Quakers in the camps. Instead, Chalmers persuaded Trocmé to prepare Le Chambon to be a bastion of security and freedom, and offered financial support from the Quakers and the Fellowship of Reconciliation.
Magda Trocmé described her family’s resistance activity as quite normal. According to her, “helping Jews was more important than resisting Vichy and the Nazis.” Noting her husband’s role in preparing the community to resist Nazi brutalities, Magda wrote, “Even before the war, we already knew the truth about what was happening to Jews and others… Little by little, André tried to prepare the population, preaching to them, preparing them to stand fast.”
André Trocmé urged his community to “obey God rather than man when there [was] a conflict between the commandments of the government and the commandments of the Bible.” As Vichy increased its persecution of Jews in 1942, Trocmé faced increased pressure to provide names of protected Jews in Le Chambon. Georges Lamirand, head of the General Secretariat for Youth, drafted an order requiring André Trocmé to name and locate the Jews in his community, but Trocmé refused. His response: “No, I cannot. First, I do not know their names, and I do not know who they are. And second, these Jews, they are my brothers.” The community shut off streetlights and warned Jews to go into hiding. As the police searched the houses of the community, Jews fled into the wooded countryside, aided by the Chambonnais.
From the making of counterfeit cards to providing food and shelter, the resisting Chambon-nais worked day-by-day to help the refugees. In contrast to the maquis groups, which used arms in acts of resistance, Le Chambon used secrecy as their weapon against Vichy and Nazi forces. As Magda Trocmé noted, the decision-making process to partake in the resistance began in the kitchen. She asserted, they “did what had to be done.” Inviting refugees into her home, Magda Trocmé dismissed the danger at her doorstep. There was no alternative. She notes: “How could we refuse them? A person doesn’t sit down and say I’m going to do this and that. We had no time to think… It was not something extraordinary.”
In February of 1943, André Trocmé wrote, “In the course of this summer we have been able to help about sixty Jewish refugees in our house; we have hidden them, fed them and often, we have taken them to a safe country…” In the course of the Occupation, 5,000 Jewish refugees of all age groups came to Le Chambon. Some of the refugees were French Jews fleeing from Northern France; others came from Eastern Europe and others from Germany and Austria.
On February 13th, 1943, two policemen arrived at the Trocmé home to arrest André. As he was not yet home, Magda offered the police supper while they waited for her husband’s arrival. A neighbor who happened to stop by the house learned of André’s arrest and spread the word around the village. People from the community began arriving at the Trocmés’ home with presents—candles, sardines, soap, toilet paper—to give to their beloved pastor. Taken to a Vichy detention camp, André was later released because he was considered more of a threat inside the camp than out of it.
Having returned to Le Chambon, André worked with an ecumenical staff to establish and maintain places of safety for Jews and other refugees, funded by world organizations including the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the Quakers, the American Congregationalists, and certain Catholic groups. Unfortunately, while a few Catholic families of Le Chambon participated in rescue efforts for the refugees, most of the dozen Catholic families in the village did not, partly because the Catholic priest had no interest in working with Protestants.
Gold Tested in Fire
Despite the relative success in Le Chambon, some members faced deportation and death. At the end of June 1943, the Gestapo made its only successful raid in Le Chambon at the House of Rocks, which housed and schooled children. Daniel Trocmé, André’s cousin, was arrested and executed on April 4th, 1944, at Maidanek in Poland. Daniel’s nephew, the son of Magda and André, pledged his revenge, but Magda reminded him of André’s words: “If you do such a thing, someone else is going to take revenge against you. And that is why we are never finished. We go on and on and on. We must forgive, we must forget; we must do better.”
André Trocmé, a man of deep faith, was accompanied by his wife, Magda, in leading their community to be one of good conscience and action. Their model of faith and action, inspired by the life and death of Jesus Christ, charges us today to examine the ways in which our quickness to resort to war brings ongoing peril to men, women, and children around the world.
[Link] |
|
 |
| Date | Firm | Approve | Disapprove | Don't Know |
 | BOOKS |
 |
|
| Title |
Purchase |
Contributor |
|
| Date |
Category |
Headline |
Article |
Contributor |
|
| INFORMATION LINKS |
|
|
|
