Le Chambon-sur-Lignon

Common card · No. 395383

Le Chambon-sur-Lignon is a commune in the Haute-Loire department in south-central France. Residents have been primarily Huguenot or Protestant since the 17th century. During World War II these Huguenot residents made the commune a haven for Jews and other refugees fleeing from Nazi Germany and countries controlled by Nazi Germany. The refugees were hidden both within the town and in the countryside or were helped to flee to neutral Switzerland. Humanitarian organizations, both Jewish and non-Jewish, and local religious leaders had a priority of hiding children to protect them from deportation to Nazi concentration camps. Estimates of the number of people sheltered in Chambon and its area range from 800 to 5,000. In 1990 the town was one of two collectively honoured as the Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in Israel for saving Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe. The other awardee was the Dutch village of Nieuwlande.

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