Édouard-Theis

André Trocmé* devint pasteur de la communauté protestante de Chambon-sur-Lignon en 1934.
Son attitude, ainsi que celle de son confrère, le pasteur Édouard Theis*, et celle du maire, le pasteur Charles Guillon*, ont permis de faire de Chambon et des autres villages des alentours un havre pour des centaines de Juifs – enfants ou familles entières – qui y ont trouvé refuge et ont survécu à la guerre.
L’épouse du pasteur, Magda Trocmé*, et son neveu Daniel Trocmé*, enseignant à l'école des Roches, l’assistent dans cette tâche.
Avec d’autres, Magda Trocmé* se charge de trouver des familles d’accueil et encourage les pensionnats de la ville à ouvrir leurs portes aux Juifs.
Ni les pressions exercées par les autorités, ni les nombreux contrôles de la gendarmerie n’affaiblirent la détermination de ces personnes.
En février 1943, le pasteur André Trocmé* fut arrêté avec le pasteur Édouard Theis* et un enseignant, directeur du collège du Chambon-sur-Lignon, Roger Darcissac*. Tous trois furent internés dans un camp près de Limoges, où ils restèrent trois semaines.
Remis en liberté, André Trocmé* dut passer en clandestinité, continuant à œuvrer en faveur des persécutés.
Le pasteur André Trocmé* et son épouse Magda Trocmé* reçurent le titre de Juste des Nations en 1971. Yad Vashem décerna également le titre de Juste à Édouard Theis* et son épouse, Mildred*, en 1981, à Roger Darcissac*, en 1988, et au pasteur Charles Guillon*, en 1991.

The Protestant minister Edouard Theis, whose sermons contained an anti-war message, was invited by his colleague, the Reverend André Trocmé (q.v.), whose beliefs and views he shared, to run the newly founded Collège Cévenol in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, in the département of Haute-Loire. When France was occupied and the Vichy regime formed, the two clergymen urged their congregants to shelter persecuted Jews, “ the people of the Bible.” Le Chambon and the surrounding villages became a refuge unique in all of France; hundreds of Jewish refugees, children and entire families, were hidden in various institutions and homes until the liberation. Edouard Theis and his wife Mildred regularly kept Jewish families in their home until they could place them in permanent shelters, and they treated their wards warmly and with dignity. On August 16, 1942, Georges Lamirand, the Minister of Youth in the Vichy government, made an official visit to the town. Trocmé and Theis refused to preach in the church in his presence. A dozen students in the Collège Cévenol handed him a letter stating: “We insist on making it known to you that there are a number of Jews among us. If our comrades, whose only fault is that they were born in another religion, receive the order to submit to deportation, they will disobey those orders, and we will do our best to hide them.” Within two weeks of Lamirand’s visit, a large detachment of gendarmes equipped with police vans moved into Le Chambon and began to make systematic searches. In church that Sunday, Trocmé and Theis urged the congregants to “do the will of God, not of men.” Theis later explained that he was obeying Deuteronomy 19:2-10, where God commands His people to create cities of refuge where an innocent man could find asylum: “so that innocent blood not be shed in the midst of your land, ... so blood [will not] be upon you.” After a few days of fruitless searches, the gendarmes left the town in frustration. In February 1943, Theis and Trocmé were arrested along with the teacher Roger Darcissac (q.v.) and were interned for three weeks at the Saint-Paul d’Eyjeaux camp near Limoges. The camp commander pressured them to sign a commitment to obey all orders of the government and its agents, but they refused and were, nevertheless, released. Once released, Theis joined the underground, and participated in the CIMADE escape network to Switzerland.
On July 15, 1981, Yad Vashem recognized the Reverend Edouard Theis and his wife Mildred as Righteous Among the Nations.

Édouard Theis

Région : Auvergne Département : Haute-Loire

Région :
Auvergne
Département :
Haute-Loire