Andre Trocme and Magda Trocme: Shepherds of Humanity in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon

“These people came here for help and for shelter. I am their shepherd. A shepherd does not forsake his flock... I do not know what a Jew is. I know only human beings. ” Andre Trocme was born in St. Quentin, 1901, in the north of France to Huguenot parents. After seminary in Paris and graduate work at Union Theological Seminary in New York, he was ordained into the French Reformed Church and served for eight years among the coal miners and steel workers of Maubeuge and Sin-le-Noble, two small towns in the north of France. He preached nonviolence at a time when such views were unpopular in France.

In 1934 Andre Trocme accepted a call to be pastor in the remote Huguenot village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon on the Plateau Vivarais-Lignon in South Central France. These parishioners were more sympathetic to his views on nonviolence. Magda Trocme (1901-1996) was born in Italy to an Italian father and a Russian mother. She graduated from the University of Florence with a degree in literature and earned further degrees in French. She and Andre Trocme met in the United States while she was attending the New York School of Social Work, and they were married in 1926. Together they had four children, Nelly, Jean-Pierre, Jacques, and Daniel.

Andre Trocme was the spiritual leader of the Protestant congregation in the village of Le Chambon sur Lignon in South Eastern France. He urged his congregation in 1942 to give shelter to any Jew who asked for it. Village was soon filled with hundreds of Jews, both permanent and temporary depending on whether they were able to cross the border or not. Approx 5,000 Jews passed through Le Chambon. Vichy authorities knew what was happening for it was hard to hide. They demanded Trocme to stop but he refused and said “These people came here for help and for shelter.

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I am their shepherd, a Shepherd does not forsake his flock... I do not know what a Jew is. I know only Human beings. ” and for that he was arrested but shortly released. Andre then had to flee and hide from the Germans but the village kept his legacy and continued to shelter for the Jews. Magda Trocme was his wife and was involved in creating and maintaining this sanctuary made for the persecuted Jews. Part of Magda’s role was locating families who were willing to lodge Jewish refugees and prepared the town’s many residential schools for increased enrollment, but she was not the only one helping in this work.

Community activists reported to the railroad station to receive the arriving refugees so they could then be housed by the town or taken to safer places. All these undertakings frustrated the regime’s anti-Jewish policies. Several days after august 15th, 1942, gendarmes moved into Le Chambon to “eliminate” the town of its “illegal” aliens and two weeks after that on August 30, rumors were around about an arrest warrant. Trocme urged the congregants to “do the will of God, not of men” and stressed the importance of the commandment in Deuteronomy 19:2-10 concerning the rights of the victimized and their need for shelter.

There were no arrests that day, and several days later the gendarmes left the town, their mission failed. Approx 5,000 Jews passed through Le Chambon. Vichy authorities knew what was happening for it was hard to hide. They demanded Trocme to stop but he refused and said “These people came here for help and for shelter. I am their shepherd, a Shepherd does not forsake his flock... I do not know what a Jew is. I know only Human beings. ” In 1943, Trocme and two colleagues were arrested where he was held at a camp for 5 weeks.

Commanders were trying to get him to sign an agreement that would mean following government orders, but refused and was later released but had to then flee from the Germans. Although he was gone the town still carried on without him, saving and hiding Jews lives. In the late 1940’s Andre and Magda Trocme traveled as European Secretaries for the International Fellowship of Reconciliation. On the 5th of January in 1971, Trocme and his wife, Magda were recognized for the Righteous among the nations along with 32 others from Le Chambon and in 1998 the town was given a diploma of honour for their humane gestures in the war.

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