Resistance Without Arms

A spirit of prayer surrounded the refugees, some speaking of miracles, some of increasing lenience on the part of the authorities. Such lenience, however, was not evident in other parts of the country where the situation was growing worse day by day.

The resisters of Chambon did not hide their activities from the authorities, they merely prevented identities being known, and in the end the police shut their eyes.

But the Vichy government was not satisfied. In the spring of 1943 it ordered the Prefect to arrest the two pastors and the headmaster of the village school; all three were interned.

After three weeks the pastors were offered their liberty if they would swear allegiance to Pétain. They refused, but Pierre Laval (Internal Affairs head) ordered their release in spite of that.

Then it was for the first time that the pastors were contacted by the Secret Army (the Maquis). Whilst expressing their sympathy with the Maquis they made it clear that there was a difference of aim between them and the Chambon movement (national liberation for the Maquis, the defence of man for the others), and also a difference in method (armed resistance for the Maquis, non-collaboration for the people of Chambon)

The two types of action continued side-by-side, often intermingled, right up to the Liberation.

It is difficult to say if the Maquis protected the nonviolent groups, or if the latter saved the Maquis in Haute Loire from the tragic fate of the Maquis in Vercors. In any case the nonviolent ones raised no question of keeping their hands clean or of dissociating themselves from those who, like themselves, were bravely risking their lives. Neither did the Maquisards accuse the nonviolent ones of cowardice, in spite of the fact that they often resisted the Maquis, too.

In the middle of 1943 one of the students’ refugee homes was raided by the Gestapo, who arrested the Director and 23 students. With the exception of three, they all died in extermination camps.

Into Hiding

Violence broke out on the day when a Vichy police spy was assassinated by four members of the Maquis. The pastors publicly expressed disapproval of this act, but they were held responsible by the Gestapo and condemned to death!

But amongst the Gestapo themselves there were those who served the Resistance. A warning from one of those enabled the pastors to go into hiding, where they had to stay for ten months.

During their absence the church strengthened its influence and the movement for peaceful resistance spread throughout the district, although many people did slide towards the Marquis.

From the time of the Normandy landing, while one of the pastors continued the work of getting fugitives over the Swiss frontier, the other went back to Chambon. The whole region had come under the authority of De Gaulle’s Fourth Republic and the situation had become complex in the extreme. There were frequent raids by German troops, many people were shot and their houses burnt. The population was swept with waves of tremendous emotion and fear.

Allied planes parachuted arms to the Maquis during the night and many of the youth of the district went over to them. A few preferred to remain nonviolent and served in other ways. 

Spying was prevalent for a time and the pastor member of the Liberation committee opposed the execution of suspects. He was not called to any further meetings, but the lives of the suspects were saved. 

Six weeks before the Liberation, almost without firing a shot, the Maquis captured 120 Germans who were trying to get to Lyons across the mountain. They included the German Regional Commander, his staff, some Gestapo officers and a body of privates. They were brought to Chambon and imprisoned in a country house. This was the time when the story of the Oradour massacre was being circulated and every German was held responsible for the crime.

The pastor made himself very unpopular with the Maquisards by visiting the prisoners. At first none of the Germans had any sense of guilt, for they believed in the early victory of Hitler and looked on themselves as the innocent victims of Communist terrorists. Every Sunday morning then, in a full church, the pastor preached powerful sermons especially directed to the Maquis members in his congregation.

In the afternoons the same sermon, translated word for word, was repeated to the German prisoners.

On both sides consciences were roused and rarely has the evidence of the Gospel of Peace been so striking.

When the hour of Liberation came the popularity of the pastor was not great, but the moral destruction caused by linking violence to the Christian Gospel had been avoided. In addition, many lives had been saved. 

Death claims two

One stage of the nonviolent resistance of the people of Chambon was passed through by two men alone. Daniel Trocmé, teacher, headmaster of two homes for refugee children and students, after a year of untiring devotion, was arrested in 1943 at the same time as his Jewish students. Held a prisoner, he continued to defend the Jews, and the Gestapo identified him with them. He died in the concentration camp at Maidanek, Poland, probably gassed, in the spring of 1944.

Roger Le Forestier, a doctor at Chambon, arrested after an imprudent step taken at the Prefecture, gave so powerful a witness for nonviolent Christianity before the Regional Commander that he was let off, but required to go to Germany as a “volunteer.” He again fell into the hands of the Gestapo at Lyons while being transferred to Germany and was massacred with 120 other innocent victims. 

It is certain, according to what was told to the pastor by the German Commander of the region, that Dr. Le Forrestier’s words on the nonviolent character of the resistance at Chambon encouraged the Germans to spare the region where so many children and innocent people had gone for refuge.

Assessment: Escaping the Mastery of Radio and Press

The exceptional nature of the resistance at Chambon arose simply from the fact that it had been possible to organise it in advance, and that its nonviolent nature was maintained to the end. This action would have been much more difficult if it had not been for the presence of “La Cimade” and the heroism of its members.

Totalitarian regimes, and the kind of control and censorship exercised in wartime, render it almost impossible to organise nonviolent resistance after either has become established. 

If the resistance arises from individuals or from small isolated groups within a hostile mass, the resisters will almost inevitably be denounced, arrested and at times liquidated. One must have lived through the collective emotions developed by skilful propaganda in order to understand how nearly impossible it is to offer open opposition. Large towns will never be favoured ground for open nonviolent resistance.

Silent Individual Devotion

Small towns and the countryside where people know one another seem more adapted for this method. In particular peasants escape from the mastery exerted by radio and Press; but they are timid conformists, incapable of initiative. Yet the initiative must be taken, and if it coincides with the deepest sentiments of the population they will give reliable if tacit approval.

A religious feeling, rather than collective enthusiasm, is capable of creating that silent individual devotion which is essential to a nonviolent campaign. Those who initiate the campaign and accept the visible risks of the undertaking cannot act without the support of hundreds of other more modest personalities.
 
Denunciations are inevitable, but the police will generally be reluctant to act when it feels public opinion against it. 

All of these conditions existed in the Chambon district between 1939 and 1944. It was impossible to arrest seven or eight thousand persons, so the authorities had to come to terms with them.

War Resistance Must Include Something Else

One cannot draw from the success of the nonviolent resistance at Chambon any lesson of a line of conduct, which would inevitably ensure success. Identical circumstances are never repeated.

On the other hand, the attempt at resistance in the Chambon district was very imperfect. Rarely during the course of it did those taking part have a feeling of dazzling success. Only when it was all over, when trying to evaluate what happened to them did they feel obliged to thank God for the daily proof He had given of His existence, and of His intervention in human affairs as soon as a few men place complete confidence in Him. On one point the experience was unsatisfying: it was not possible for nonviolent resisters to avoid using false identity papers.

Identity Papers: A Moral Problem

To show a true identity paper was the equivalent of a denunciation. It seemed preferable to violate a formal moral rule (absolute truth), in order to apply a living moral law (the absolute value of the human person).

André Trocmé concludes his account with the comment:

“On another point our experience was positive: to resist war is but half our duty, saying no to evil is not enough. War resistance must include something else – and that something is the salvation of the physical and moral life of mankind threatened with a double destruction.”

Hope of a Nonviolent Europe

Salvation is better assured by nonviolent resistance than by violent resistance, but nonviolent resistance also has its failures – and its martyrs. We have never been able to console ourselves for having been unable to save from death the twenty students of the Maison des Roches.

And yet we ask ourselves how much ruin and mourning would have been caused if the two pastors and the Christians of Chambon had felt obliged to lay ambushes and throw bombs.

Let us leave aside the problem of national liberation. Gandhi alone could deal with it. Yet we can imagine a Europe, which is entirely nonviolent, offering total resistance to Hitler, a Europe which the dictator and his police would have been unable to conquer.