The Reverend Andre and Magda Trocme and the People of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon
France

Le Chambon-sur-Lignon is situated on a high plateau surrounded by rugged mountains in south-central France. It is a place where the winters are long and cold. But there, in that little village, the climate of the heart was warm, for it was in Le Chambon that people fleeing from the Nazis were welcomed and found a place of refuge. Adults as well as children were cared for by the people of the village and by the peasants in the surrounding countryside. Jewish children taken from internment camps like Gurs and Rivesaltes were hidden and helped by these caring people. In that village Jewish children went to school and had their lessons together with non-Jewish children from the area.

The people in Le Chambon not only resisted the Nazis, they resisted the policies of their own country, Vichy France.

The leaders of this resistance were a Protestant minister Andre Trocme and his wife Magda. As Magda Trocme said later, the issue was, "Do you think we are all brothers or not? Do you think it is unjust to turn in the Jews, or not? Then let us try to help."