Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed

“And to my surprise, again the spear, again the tears, again the frantic, painful pleasure that spills into the mind when a deep, deep, need is being satisfied, or when a deep wound is starting to heal.”

Hallie equates the experience of learning about Le Chambon with pain and healing simultaneously. The implicit message is that Le Chambon saved thousands of children, thus rescuing an element of humanity that was desperately at risk during a dark time.

“How can you call us ‘good’? We were doing what had to be done. Who else could help them? And what has all this to do with goodness? Things had to be done, that’s all, and we happened to be there to do them. You must understand that it was the most natural thing in the world to help these people.”

Hallie’s quotation of the sentiments of the Le Chambon residents demonstrates the simplicity of their choices, even in the face of massive consequences. Furthermore, it thematically emphasizes the nature of Public Versus Private Action in that the citizens were concerned only with the act, not the accolade.

“Now and for the rest of his life he knew that there were some people—indeed, many people—who did not realize what suspicion and hatred were doing to their own minds and to their victims.”

Trocmé’s encounter with the bigoted police captain demonstrated to him and to Hallie how dangerous ignorance can be and how it can support evil. This also reveals how Trocmé viewed even the perpetrators of evil: as uneducated, not as inherently irredeemable.