Nelly Trocmé Hewett to Discuss her Family Village's Effort to Hide Jewish Refugees in World War II at WWU Sept. 23

Nelly Trocmé Hewett will speak about the French Plateau Vivarais-Lignon and the village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a place of safety and shelter for Jewish refugees during WWII, from 3-4:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 23 in Academic West 204 on the Western Washington University campus.

The presentation is free and open to the public.

From December 1940 to September 1944, the inhabitants of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon and the surrounding villages provided refuge for an estimated 3,500 Jews, the majority of whom were children. Le Chambon-sur-Lignon became widely known due to the 1989 documentary film “Weapons of the Spirit” by Pierre Sauvage. In 1990 Le Chambon-sur-Lignon became the first community to be honoured as Righteous Gentiles by the Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem.

Nelly Trocmé Hewett will speak about her father and mother, André  and Magda Trocmé, and the remarkable efforts of ordinary people as described in the book written by Peter Grose, (and on which she served as a consultant), “A Good Place to Hide: How One French Community Saved Thousands Of Lives During World War II.”

This event is co-sponsored by Western Libraries in collaboration with Western Washington University’s Ray Wolpow Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity; the Department of History; the Institute for Global Engagement; and the Department of Modern and Classical Languages.

For more information about this event, please contact Sylvia Tag at (360) 650-7992 or sylvia.tag@wwu.edu.

Image courtesy The Jewish Virtual Library