Thursday, January 5, 2023

It is the 5th of January 2023. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org. I’m Dan van Voorhis.

On yesterday’s show, I told the story of a man who fought against the Nazis, and I wondered if sometimes we might become desensitized to some amazing stories because they become tropes. And what of you know, for a second straight day, we have another character- another Nazi resistor whose story, if not known, deserves to be heard.

It was on this, the 5th of January in 1971, that Yad Vashem recognized the French pastor Andre Trocme as “Righteous Among the Nations”- his heroic actions earned him the highest honor given to Gentiles by that Jewish organization. Righteous Among the Nations refers to Talmudic teaching about Gentiles who live by the moral teachings in the Seven Laws of Noah.

Trocme was born in France in 1901- he witnessed the horrors of World War 1 as a teenager and became a convinced pacifist during his studies at home and abroad at Union Theological Seminary in New York (it was in New York that he would meet his wife, the Italian Magda Grilli di Cortona)

He was called to a church in his native northern France but was rebuked for teaching pacifism and was sent to a remote parish in South Central France- the small town on a plateau- Le Chambon-Sur-Lignon. By 1937 the village was already taking in refugees from the Spanish Civil War, but when war came to France with the German occupation of France in 1940, the village would be under Vichy rule.

Real quick: Vichy France was basically the south of France after the German occupation of Paris. The north of France was formally occupied, while the south was under a puppet government- known by the name of its capital: Vichy.

The people of Le Chambon-Sur-Lignon had long been a thorn in the side of the region as it was historically Catholic and Trocme and his parish had old Huguenot roots. They had a general distaste for authority and stronger ties to one another than any national picture of what it meant to be French. Trocme and his wife convinced the locals to not only take in Jewish refugees (in Vichy France, there were concentration camps for Jews- especially foreign Jews) but to keep it quiet- no one asked anyone about their religion, and they were tight-lipped when authorities cane pocking around. The Vichy Government and Gestapo caught wind that something was happening in Le Chambon-Sur-Lignon but could not get anyone to flip on their pastor and his allies.

In a sermon shortly after the German invasion, Trocme impressed upon his parishioners:

“To resist steadfastly with the weapons of the spirit. To love one another, to forgive, to do good to the enemy – that is our task. But to do this without fleeing from the world, without craven submission, without cowardice. We will resist when our enemies demand from us things that our teachings forbid or that contradict the commands of the gospel."

Trocme would preach the need to take in refugees and to love the people of the Bible, as he called the Jewish people. The town would also become a hiding place for many of the children of Jewish parents taken to the camps. It is estimated that Trocme and the community saved upwards of 5,000 people.

Andre and his assistant were arrested and sent to a camp, but the story became too high profile in Vichy France, and he could not be erased without unwanted attention. And so Andre was released, went back to the town, and continued with his wife and parishioners to shelter the Jewish refugees until the liberation of France and the fall of the Nazis.

Trocme would live to be recognized as “Righteous Among the Gentiles” on this day in 1971 but only lived a few months longer- he died in June of that year at the age of 70. It should be noted that his wife, Magda received the same recognition in 1986, and the designation was given to the whole town a few years after that.

A popular book, “Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed” by Phillip Hallie was published in 1979, and a documentary, “Weapons of the Spirit,” was made in 1989.

The last word for today comes from the daily lectionary from Hebrews- again- now chapter 12:

12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 5th of January 2023 brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who, on this, the 12th Day of Christmas, can tell you the cost in 2022 dollars for all 12 days of gifts is $45,523.27- up 10% from last year. He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who reminds you it's hypothetical because you can’t buy people- Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.