Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed

The text describes the family life of Trocmé, Magda, Nelly, and the other children. Trocmé would come home after seeing his parishioners, and the children climbed on him and played with him. If he was too tired, he told them stories of the “Little Beast,” who had magical powers and could always create good to triumph over evil. As the occupation wore on, the family had less of this intimate time. The presbytery was filled with refugees and boarders who brought in extra income. Trocmé also had less time to devote to his family given all the demands of managing the refugee crisis. While the influx of new people and the looming threats were exciting to the children, they felt the absence of their parents’ attention strongly.

Jacques, a younger son of the Trocmés, recalls the church insisting that his father stop helping refugees. Trocmé flatly refused and argued with the church leader. Overhearing this confrontation shook Jacques’s trust in the Reformed Church of France for the rest of his life. In reaction to the church’s demand, Trocmé submitted his resignation to the Le Chambon presbyterial council, who absolutely refused and insisted that he continue his work helping refugees. Before the occupation, Trocmé had a similar experience with church leaders when he insisted on maintaining his conscientious objections to violence.

The children had different relationships with each parent. Trocmé was warm and loving but so solidly committed to his morality that he often felt “‘hard to take’ for the children” (146), whereas Magda inspired intimacy and trust. She could understand the children’s need for flexibility, while Trocmé expected as much moral fortitude from his children as he maintained.

During the occupation years, the entire family was under both physical and emotional stress. However, the toll of the work was hardest on Magda, who never had a moment to stop, rest, and reflect. She was often so stressed that she had no appetite and forgot to eat. She lost weight and was often weak. On the advice of a visitor from Avignon, she reached out to the devout Protestant community there and asked for help. Alice Reynier came and stayed for decades, always dedicated to the family and the good that their energies created.

The text compares Magda’s practical and personal ethic of helping to Trocmé’s spiritual ethic of being as close to Jesus Christ as possible by behaving as Christ did. Trocmé and Magda were deeply in love, and she did whatever was needed to help him in his cause, not because of the cause but because of her belief in him. They argued, sometimes vehemently (one argument ended when they threw water at one another), but always made peace before bed.

The presbytery was an integral part of Le Chambon, and the Trocmés embodied and represented the village’s values. One important moment was when a woman begged Trocmé to disobey the law and give her husband, killed in a fight with the Vichy government, funeral rites. The woman had argued against Trocmé’s nonviolence, but he went without hesitation. A Catholic priest had already discovered the body, given the man funeral rites, and removed the body from the battlefield.

Upon returning from his conversations with Chalmers, Trocmé met with the local council and easily persuaded them of the need to house refugee children. He got his cousin Daniel Trocmé to act as monitor in the house and safeguard the children. Throughout the occupation, even after the Quakers left France, their financial support for Le Chambon continued, often at great risk to those who brought the money.

The history of Protestantism in Le Chambon and the neighboring village of Le Mazet was one element of the village’s willingness to hide and safeguard refugees from Nazi Germany. During the persecution of the Huguenots, the villagers secretly resisted that persecution by refusing to give up their religion and worshipped secretly in the meadows and woods near the village.

During the occupation, the number of refugees grew so significantly that Trocmé and Le Chambon began to usher refugees safely out of France into neutral Switzerland when the houses in town were full. To maintain morale in the village through the challenges of the occupation, Trocmé and Theis gave regular sermons, largely drawing inspiration from their favorite passages from the Bible: the Good Samaritan and the Sermon on the Mount. Trocmé used the same verses to frame his meetings with the 13 responsables who formed the communication network and spiritual support for the different areas of the village.

The text asserts that the presbytery was not the village’s only source of courage and rescue. Moving outward from the presbytery, which served largely as a hub for incoming refugees, Le Chambon had many places of refuge. Some were funded houses (like the two houses that Daniel managed), which received financial support from external organizations like the Quakers and even neutral and allied nations. The seven funded houses included The Crickets, the original house founded after Trocmé’s meeting with Chalmers; the Farm School, which began as a space to teach Cévenol students and locals efficient farming techniques; and the Flowery Hill, supported partly by the Cimade, a network of women who organized the movement of Jews from France to Switzerland. In addition to the funded houses were the pensions, or locally owned private boardinghouses. Because Le Chambon was a tourist community, boardinghouses were largely empty in winter but generated significant summer income. These included the houses of Madame Eyraud, who safeguarded adolescent boys; Madame Marion, who housed all girls; and Gabrielle Barraud, a dear friend of the Trocmés who saw massive tragedy in the boys she cared for. All the pensions largely housed adolescents, seeking to give them a sense of home and nurturing. Finally, individual farms and families regularly opened their homes to refugee families and individuals for a short time or even for months or years.

On the outer ring of the metaphorical target diagram describing Le Chambon were the Maquis and the Secret Army of General de Gaulle. These Frenchmen engaged in violent resistance against the Vichy government and the Germans. The Maquis were problematic, occasionally using force, and were often frustrated by Trocmé’s absolute refusal to engage in violence. However, they protected the village from German squads near the end of the war. The Secret Army was more organized and less hotheaded, and the local leader was a good friend of Trocmé’s, with whom he often discussed resistance strategy and tactics.

In addition to the major players were the Catholics and the refugees. The Catholics of France generally resisted the Vichy and Nazi aims in ways similar to Trocmé. Some Catholic families in the village housed refugees, and the Trocmés had a friendly relationship with the village priest. However, the Catholic presence in Le Chambon was small. The refugees were from distinct groups: French Jews who were shocked to discover that being Jewish mattered more than being French; Eastern European Jews fleeing from both Nazi and national persecution; German Jews often mourning the loss of their country as they mourned the loss of friends and family; and other non-Jews like the young men fleeing forced service to the Nazis, anti-Nazi Germans, and Spanish Republicans fleeing Franco’s fascist Spain. Though the network of refuge in Le Chambon lacked cohesion, secrecy was crucial to protect the refugees and also to protect the villagers from discovery and the possibility of a violent raid and massacre.