Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed

In Le Chambon, the presbytery and surrounding village both lacked vitality when the Trocmé family arrived. However, Magda and Trocmé soon transformed both the community and the presbytery. Instead of an attitude of inevitable difficulty, the Trocmés offered vibrancy and inspiration, primarily through founding the Cévenol secondary school, which attracted students, families, and faculty to the town to boost the economy. Trocmé recruited Theis, who had teaching experience, to help establish the school. The educational focus combined a philosophy of nonviolence and undergraduate exam preparation.

Initially, the school struggled both because of monetary concerns and the growing threat of Nazi Germany. Hitler’s failure to keep his promises to France generated anger in the French people, and conscientious objection to violence became unfashionable and unpatriotic. Therefore, external support for the school was scant. However, the school had Le Chambon’s local support, and regardless of other Protestant communities’ attitudes, the fundamental independence of Protestantism in France enabled the Cévenol school to thrive.

As Germany had increasing strategic success in Europe, refugees from European countries occupied by Germany sought safety in the south of France. This influx of refugees provided the Cévenol school with new students and teachers who joined the community. As the war raged, Trocmé and Theis preached the value of nonviolence and simultaneously condemned inaction. Trocmé was particularly critical of the US’s noninterventionist policies at the time.

In 1940, Germany and France signed the armistice that allowed for the German occupation of northern and western France. The unoccupied, or free, zone comprised the eastern and southern areas of France, including Le Chambon. The unoccupied zone was under the power of Marshal Pétain, an 84-year-old patriot and war hero who promised a unified France and a return to pre-Revolution glory. Pétain’s Vichy government, however, was tied to German powers and created an atmosphere of anti-resistance. The German-occupied north and west had various pockets of resistance because the German soldiers were generally brutal and threatening. The French police in the south were often kind and ignored small infractions. The threat seemed smaller, and resistance was a difficult choice. The Chambonnais, however, under Trocmé’s vigor, refused to bend to paralysis and chose to resist.

The first act of resistance was simply not participating in the fascist flag salute that Pétain required in all free and public schools in unoccupied France. The order was for all students and faculty to circle the French flag and give a fascist palm-down, straight-armed salute every morning. Trocmé and Theis refused this salute, and Darcissac suggested having the ceremony at his school and flagpole, separating the students and faculty from each school so that the Cévenol school’s population would be standing in the road. Theis told the students and faculty that they could participate if they chose, and soon both schools stopped participating. This small act of resistance met no response from police or the larger government, so it inspired the community by demonstrating the possibility of resistance. A few months later, the staff of the Cévenol school refused to sign an oath of loyalty to Pétain. Again, there was no reprisal, and the community was even more solidified in their nonviolent, personal resistance to tyranny.