Postcard with View of Chambon-Sur-Lignon, France

Authors

Object ID

2014.1.465

Object Name

Postcard, Picture

Date

8-19-1936

Files

Content Warning

The Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection consists of images, documents, and artifacts related to the Holocaust. The collection contains materials that depict a number of topics that may be difficult for viewers to engage with, including: antisemitic descriptions, caricatures, and representation of Jewish people; Nazi imagery and ideology; descriptions and images of German ghettos; graphic images of the violence of the Holocaust; and the creation of the State of Israel. For more information, see our policy page.

Description

Front: Black and white photograph of a forest.Back: Message written in blue ink.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

While the Nazis and their Vichy collaborators delivered 83,000 Jews - including 10,000 children - to concentration camps, the ordinary citizens of the town of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, in the hills of southeastern France, took in and protected Jews at great peril to their own lives. Approximately 5,000 Jews were saved, sheltered, educated, or, with the help of the underground, spirited to Spain or Switzerland. Jews were housed in private homes, on farms and public institutions, and when Gestapo or their Vichy French collaborators approached, villagers would hide the children in the forest. As soon as they left, villagers would sing a song signaling that it was safe to emerge from hiding. This extraordinary effort involving the entire village was guided by the Protestant pastor of the village, André Trochmé, and his wife Magda. Despite being threatened by Vichy collaborators, he would not betray his charges. His cousin Daniel Trochmé, however, was arrested and sent to the concentration camp Majdanek, where he perished. When André Trochmé was finally forced to go into hiding, his wife Magda continued his work of sheltering the Jews of Le Chambon until the end of the war. The entire community of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon has been honored by Yad Vashem as Righteous Gentiles, the first community to be so honored.

Dimensions

5 1/2 x 3 1/2"

Keywords

Le Temple, Protestant, Temple, Le Chambon-Sur-Lignon, honor, Righteous Gentiles

Subcollection

Communities, Diplomats

Recommended Citation

"Postcard with View of Chambon-Sur-Lignon, France" (1936). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2014.1.465.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/647