The Village of Le Chambon — An Entire Town That Stood Against the Nazis

In the mountain village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in southern France, the entire Protestant community — led by Pastor Andre Trocme and his wife Magda — conspired to hide Jewish refugees and French resistance fighters. Magda Trocme hid resistance fighters in her bread ovens and cellar, and when French police came searching, she served them tea and lied to their faces with complete calm. The villagers forged documents, hid people in forests, established escape routes to Switzerland, and essentially ran an underground railroad from right under the Vichy government's nose. The pastor, when asked by the Vichy authorities why he was helping Jews, replied: 'We do not know what a Jew is. We only know men.' The village saved between 3,000 and 5,000 people during the war. The entire village was recognized collectively as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem — one of the only collective honors ever given to an entire community.