Protestant population of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon (circa 1941--1944) | Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust

Town in southern France whose inhabitants protected some 3000-5000 Jews from the Nazis between 1941 and 1944. The rescue activities took place in Le Chambon were initiated and led by the town’s pastor, Andre Trocme, and his wife Magda. Trocme encouraged his constituents to assist Jews who were fleeing the Nazis by hiding them in their private homes and farms. Other Jews were given refuge in children’s homes and public institutions in Le Chambon. Some were then smuggled over the border into Switzerland. Volunteers from Le Chambon, such as Pastor Edouard Theis, took these Jews on dangerous journeys through French towns and villages; when they reached the Swiss border, they handed the Jews over to Protestant volunteers on the other side.

A cousin of Pastor Trocme named Daniel Trocme was the director of a children’s home in Le Chambon. In that capacity, he rescued many Jewish children. However, he was found out by the Germans in June 1943, and sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp, where he perished. After the war, Andre Trocme, Daniel Trocme, Edouard Theis, and 32 other inhabitants of Le Chambon were designated as “Righteous Among the Nations” by Yad Vashem.