André Trocmé

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André Trocmé

André Trocmé (born April 7, 1901 in St. Quentin ; † June 5, 1971 in Geneva ) was a French evangelical reformed pastor , resistance fighter and peace activist .

Live and act

André Trocmé was the son of the Protestant textile industrialist Paul Trocmé in St. Quentin and his second wife Paula (Elisabeth F. Pauline) geb. Schwertmann (1868–1911), a daughter of Pastor Edward Arnold Schwerdtmann (born February 20, 1832 in Bergkirchen ; † October 18, 1907 in Petzen ) and sister of General Superintendent Johannes Schwerdtmann , who lived in the Principality of Schaumburg-Lippe . After primary school he attended a secondary school, where he obtained his university entrance qualification . He then studied Protestant theology in Paris and New York . After his ordination in 1934 he was pastor of the Reformed parish in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon , a parish in the Ardèche department . Most of its inhabitants are from Huguenots , who are considered self-confident and generally hold fast to their beliefs. While France was occupied by Hitler's armed forces and ruled by the Vichy regime , Pasteur Trocmé had an impact on the consciousness of a large number of people in his community with his preaching of the gospel of charity and humanity. This pastoral work changed the way of life of the residents, because they recognized in the gospel their obligation to help threatened people. They took in refugees, hid them or made them undetectable for their persecutors. The rescue operations were planned in the rectory of the small town. Most of the time the persecuted were initially accommodated in hotels, from where they were distributed to individual farms by Trocmé and other pastors. The refugees were housed with families and in the rectory, in barns and in workshops. School lessons were organized for children. Many refugees were even registered with the police under false names in order to obtain the necessary ration cards . The resistant village had sympathizers even among the police. They warned her secretly when danger threatened. Then the refugees were quickly hidden in the forest. At the time of the German invasion in May 1940, around 330,000 Jews were living in France. At the end of the German occupation in September 1944, three quarters of the Jews had survived, and almost 80,000 had fallen victim to the “ final solution to the Jewish question ”.

“ We don't know what Jews are. We only know people "

replied the French pastor André Trocmé when he was asked by French police officers in the summer of 1942 to reveal the hiding place of Jewish refugees.

Trocmé's conspiratorial behavior became known to the occupiers and their French helpers, and so he was arrested. While he was in prison with other detainees, resistance fighters questioned him about the reason for his actions. "Because faith has to work on earth", answered Pastor Trocmé. And he added that he did not want to sit idly by waiting for heaven. Because the police had no evidence, they released the pastor.

The approximately 9,000 residents of that area resisted the National Socialist occupation in their own way. When the war ended, they had saved or helped nearly 5,000 refugees from certain death, including around 3,500 Germans, Austrians, Dutch and French of Jewish descent.

Even after the liberation from National Socialism , Trocmé continued to advocate his idea of ​​the brotherhood of all people. As secretary of the International Union of Reconciliation , he carried out peace work across national borders. He became a member of the Christian Peace Conference (CFK) and worked on its committees. As the author of children's books, he passed on his theological knowledge and his insights into peace politics, because he saw in children the actors of tomorrow.

In 1990, 19 years after Trocme's death, the Israeli government honored the entire region as " Righteous Among the Nations " for its courage .

Trocmé's nonviolent commitment to peace puts him, according to historians, on a par with Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi .

Most of the Trocmé's archives are in the Swarthmore College Library, Peace Collection Dept., Pennsylvania; a copy in the archives of the World Council of Churches in Geneva.

Works

literature

  • Hanna Schott: About love and resistance. The life of Magda & André Trocmé. Neufeld Verlag, Schwarzenfeld 2011, ISBN 978-3-86256-017-2 .
  • Philip Hallie : "... That innocent blood should not be shed." The history of the village of Le Chambon and how good happened there. Neukirchner Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1990.
  • Allison Stark Draper: Pastor André Trocmé. Rosen, New York 2001 (English).
  • Pierre Boismorand: Magda et André Trocmé, figures de résistance. Éditions du Cerf, Paris 2008, ISBN 2204084808 .
    • in English: Magda and Andre Trocme. Resistance Figures. Translator Jo-Anne Elder. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2014, ISBN 077354352X (also as an ebook in various formats).
  • Patrick Cabanel: De la paix aux resistances. Les protestants français de 1930 à 1945. Fayard, Paris 2015, ISBN 2213685762 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A Life for Peace. Retrieved October 21, 2018 .
  2. ^ Pastor André Trocmé. The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, accessed June 29, 2017 .
  3. ↑ readable in Google book search , called up chapter by chapter (12 ore online of 14 in print)
  4. ↑ From the French: Jesus et la révolution non violente. Labor & Fides / Cerf, Geneva 1961. As Engl. E-book from 2003 see web links; also searchable in online bookstores
  5. ↑ detailed critical use of the book in Caroline Moorehead : Village of secrets. Defying the Nazis in Vicy France. Vintage, London 2015, throughout. She accuses Hallie of unhistorical hero worship and describes the controversies that have been negotiated in the region since 1990
personal data
SURNAME Trocmé, André
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French theologian and peace activist
DATE OF BIRTH April 7, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Quentin
DATE OF DEATH 5th June 1971
Place of death Geneva