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Weapons
of the Spirit
The Witnesses
in order of appearance
- Pierre Sauvage, the filmmaker and narrator.
- Henri and Emma Héritier, the peasant couple who
sheltered the village forger and other Jews, also helping the
filmmaker's family. Monsieur Héritier: "When people came,
if we could be of help..."
- Charles Gibert, the old villager who sings the local
Huguenot hymn and plays the harmonica.
- Joseph Atlas, the young Polish Jew who felt himself
sheltered by a Protestant community.
- Hilde and Jean Hillebrand, the German Jew married to a
German Protestant, who remember that the villagers risked their
lives.
- Georgette Barraud, who ran a boarding home that took in
many Jews. "It happened so naturally, we can't understand
the fuss."
- Lesley Maber, the Englishwoman who moved to Le Chambon
before the war. "People who seem very ordinary can do great
things if they're given the opportunity."
- Pastor Édouard Theis, the assistant pastor of Le
Chambon during the war. "For the Pétain regime we had
nothing but contempt."
- Magda Trocmé, the widow of pastor André Trocmé,
pastor of Le Chambon during the war. "If we'd had an
organization, we would have failed."
- Nelly Trocmé Hewett, the American daughter of André
and Magda Trocmé for whom the Jews were simply "part of the
community and part of the school just as we were."
- Peter Feigl, the American businessman who as a 14
year-old smuggled across the Swiss border photographs of his
fellow refugees.
- Henriette and Robert Bloch, the French Jews who just
couldn't imagine what was happening to the Jews of France.
- Marguerite Roussel, the Catholic woman who like the
other members of the area's Catholic minority joined actively in
the rescue effort. "We never analyzed what we were doing. It
happened by itself."
- Madeleine Dreyfus, the French Jewish relief worker who
always succeeded in placing Jewish children in the farmhouses of
the area.
- Pastor Marc Donadille, the respectful Christian relief
worker at the Coteau Fleuri (the Flowery Hill), the home
for Jews rescued from French internment camps.
- Marie Brottes, the Christian fundamentalist for whom
the Jews were the People of God. "And the Jew, truly, had
fallen among thieves."
- Georges Lamirand, the Vichy Minister for Youth who went
on an official visit to Le Chambon during the war.
- Pierre Fayol, the French Jew who served as the
Resistance leader in the district.
- Adolphe and Aline Caritey, whose home was the
headquarters of the armed resistance in Le Chambon.
- Roger Bonfils, whose hotel was the headquarters of the
Germans in Le Chambon.
- Émile Sèches, who ran the Jewish boarding home for
children next door to the German headquarters.
- Oskar Rosowsky, the Jewish teenager who forged false
I.D. for all who needed them.
- Paul Majola, the young shepherd who helped in the
distribution of the false papers.
- André and Ginette Weil, the Jewish couple who met in
the area during the war.
- Marguerite Kohn, the Orthodox Jew who remembers that
her neighbors respected her faith.
- Roger Darcissac, the public school director who told
authorities there were no Jews in his school. "It was the
human thing to do, or something like that."
- Émile Grand, who remembers that his neighbor Albert
Camus was writing a book about a plague.
- Léa Roche and Évelyne Verilhac, the mother and
daughter who rented a room in their farm to the filmmaker's
family.
Back to Weapons of the
Spirit Transcript
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Revised:
May 20, 2010