Main content

Extent:

7.7 linear ft. (7.7 linear ft.)

Abstract:

André and Magda Trocmé are perhaps best known for their work in the small French town of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon where, during World War II, they inspired the villagers to help protect and sometimes to assist in the escape of Jews and other poltiical refugees. In 1938, André Trocmé, and his pacifist colleague Édouard Theis, founded L'Ecole Nouvelle Cévenol in Le Chambon, a Protestant, co-educational secondary school, with a curriculum of tolerance, honesty, and nonviolence. By 1942 the Germans had occupied the entire country. However, the population of Le Chambon and the Plateau Vivarais-Lignon region continued to aid an increasing number of refugees. In 1943, André Trocmé, Édouard Theis, and the head of the public school, Roger Darcissac were interned in a camp by the Vichy police and later went into hiding. In the late 1940s André and Magda Trocmé traveled as European Secretaries for the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR).

Held at: Swarthmore College Peace Collection [Contact Us]