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TO SAVE ONE LIFE
The Story of Righteous Gentiles

Text by Dr. William L. Shulman, Director

Queensborough Community College
The City University of New York • Bayside, New York

FRANCE
Le Chambon

The people of Le Chambon (located in the southeastern part of the country), led by their pastor André Trocmé, refused to accept the invincibility of evil and brute power. These farmers, peasants and housewives took in Jewish refugees from all over Europe, risking their lives, and the lives of their families, to give protection to thousands of Jews fleeing the Nazis. This is a place where goodness happened.

 Pastor André Trocmé wrote the following in February, 1943:

…in the course of the summer we have been able to help about sixty Jewish refugees in our own home; we have hidden them, fed them, plucked them out of deportation groups, and often we have taken them to a safe country. You can imagine what struggles—with the authorities—what real dangers this means for us: threats of arrest, submitting to long interrogations...

Philip Hallie, Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed, p. 47  

Magda Trocmé, the pastor's wife, explained why the people of her community risked their lives to protect the Jews:

Those of us who received the first Jews did what we thought had to be done—nothing more complicated…How could we refuse them?…The issue was: Do you think we are all brothers or not? Do you think it is unjust to turn in the Jews or not? Then let us try to help!

Carol Rittner and Sonia Myers, Courage to Care, p.102

Hanne Liebmann was one of those who was saved by the good people of Le Chambon.  We came to Le Chambon, and we were received very wonderfully with a good meal, with stuff we hadn't seen in a long, long time.…When the French came to round up Jewish people in August-September, 1942…we were hidden by farmers, they took care of us, they protected us. I don't think any of them were ever reimbursed. And food actually was very tight...Le Chambon was a very poor farming village, nothing much grows; so whatever they had, they shared with us. And if you are a family with small children and you take in one or two more mouths to feed, it is a sacrifice. And they didn't mind sacrificing, or even putting their lives at risk for us…

William L. Shulman, Voices and Visions, p. 42-3

Juliette Usach, a doctor who was in charge of the La Guespy children's home in Le Chambon sur Lignon,where Jewish children were cared for, was herself a refugee from the Civil War in Spain.

Photo Credit: Hanne Liebmann, courtesy of USHMM Photo Archives

Izieu

Izieu was a remote farming village in the hills overlooking the Rhone River valley. It was the site of a farmhouse that was a refuge for Jewish children. Villagers protected the children, employed them, provided food and shelter when necessary. However, there were some villagers who were hostile. One day, in the spring of 1944, the Gestapo raided the farmhouse and according to the report of Klaus Barbie, the chief of the Gestapo in Lyons, "...in total 41 children, aged from 3 to 13 years, were captured. In addition the arrest of the entire Jewish staff, or
10 individuals, including 5 women, has taken place…Transport to Drancy will take place on
April 7, 1944."

Susan Zuccotti, The Holocaust, the French, and the Jews, p.196

DENMARK

Of all the countries of Nazi-occupied Europe, only Denmark rescued virtually all its Jews. With their long tradition of tolerance toward the Jews, the Danes regarded the Jewish question rather than one of an isolated minority. Danish Jews were accepted and respected. They were regarded as Danes like any others. Denmark was invaded and occupied in 1940…At first the Danes were allowed to run their country without a great deal of interference, and Danish Jews were not persecuted. But by 1943, even they were no longer exempt from the Final Solution. Plans for the deportation of Jews were leaked to Danish political leaders by their German sources.

The Danish response was quick. Fishermen, farmers, businessmen, taxi drivers, doctors and clergymen joined in a well-coordinated effort to spirit the Jews out of the country before they could be deported.

   Michael Berenbaum, The World Must Know, p. 157

The 7,220 Jews that were rescued were brought to Sweden.

Group portrait of Danish-Jewish children living in a Swedish children's home, after their escape from Denmark.

 Photo Credit: Frihedsmuseet, courtesy of USHMM Photo Archive

ITALY

Italy's Jewish population was not endangered until late in the war. Approximately 85 percent of Italy's Jews survived the Holocaust. The reasons that the deportations began late in Italy are because the Germans did not occupy the country until 1943, and the danger period was shorter because liberation was earlier. The Jews were few in number (one tenth of one percent of the population), therefore sympathetic Christians could give them shelter more easily than in other countries. Most importantly, Italy lacked a tradition of anti-Semitism. All of these factors, combined with the traditional Italian dislike for authority and their dislike for the Nazis in particular, led to an effort to rescue their Jewish fellow-countrymen and women.

Eastern Europe

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