Courage of Le Chambon.

We were assigned to read and annotate a story of resistance, my group and I were assigned the story of Le Chambon. This story is of a silent resistance, the one no one can can know about in penalty of punishment, sometimes even in penalty of death. The small village of Le Chambon hid Jews in their homes during the Holocaust, they believed that killing them was wrong and that everyone deserved to live. They were given their own decision whether to help them or not, though their choice was obvious. Even the children were in on the silent resistance. When asked to be apart of a Hitler Youth Group they said these exact words, "Make no distinction between Jews and non-Jews. It is contrary to Gospel teaching."

What did you learn from the story's rescuers?

Throughout the story of Le Chambon, they talk about a lot of decision making. They help me learn that some decisions are easier to grasp than others. For example, the decision on whether to help the Jews or to kill them came easy to them. Help was the only answer. Magda Torcme was the wife of the towns minister. She put her decision making in these very words, "Sometime people ask me, How did you make a decision? There was no decision to make. 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!" In the end decisions can be easy to make, it really just depends on the situation.

What do they teach us about human behavior?

Le Chambon does teach us some about human behavior, their story proves that it is human nature to have your own opinion. It is also human nature to help those who need it (Though it depends on the person, some don't help others.) and it is also human nature to go against something if we feel it best. Le Chambon went against the slaughtering of the Jews were their silent resistance, silently stowing away Jews in their own homes for protection so that they would not be harmed. Le Chambon also teaches us that behavior can also be affected my religion, by beliefs or just morals. The children of Le Chambon said no when asking to participate in the Hitler Youth Group, not only because they thought it was wrong, but also because their religion taught them not to. Their religion said all were equal. The quote in the first paragraph, last sentence, says it all. Those few words that came out of the children's mouths showed utter courage. Some would not have been able to do that. So overall human behavior can be easily affected.

Le Chambon was brave during harsh times, they helped those who needed it and saved many, many lives. It didn't affect what happened to the others who were inside the atrocious camps, but it did make many other families incredibly happy and incredibly safe. More people should have done what they did around the world and not have a certain limit of Jews to enter the country. That way it probably wouldn't have been as bad as it was.

Make a difference, help others in need.

By: Allison Michelle Bradford.