Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed: The Story of the Village of Le Chambon and How Goodness Happened There [Paperback]

Philip Hallie (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 8, 1994

During the most terrible years of World War II, when inhumanity and political insanity held most of the world in their grip and the Nazi domination of Europe seemed irrevocable and unchallenged, a miraculous event took place in a small Protestant town in southern France called Le Chambon. There, quietly, peacefully, and in full view of the Vichy government and a nearby division of the Nazi SS, Le Chambon's villagers and their clergy organized to save thousands of Jewish children and adults from certain death.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"After reading this book, one is compelled to think of The Sorrow and the Pity...and the courage and the faith." -- --New York Times Book Review

"The subject makes a deservedly beautiful book. Mr. Hallie is wholly equal to it." -- --Paul Horgan

"The subject makes a deservedly beautiful book. Mr. Hallie is wholly equal to it." -- Paul HorganA

About the Author

Philip Hallie was Griffin Professor of Philosophy at Wesleyan University, where he taught for thirty-two years. He died in 1994, leaving this manuscript. That it can now be published is do to the devotion of his wife, Doris Ann Hallie, who contributed an afterword. The foreword by John Compton, fellow philosopher and longtime friend of the author, will help the reader to understand this unusual document in the context of Hallie's life and thought.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (April 8, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060925175
• ISBN-13: 978-0060925178
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #60,581 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #98 in Books > History > Europe > France

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moving, challenging, insightful, June 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed: The Story of the Village of Le Chambon and How Goodness Happened There (Paperback)

Hallie is a brilliant writer and researcher who tells an amazing story of courage and faith. In it he demonstrates how "decent" people who stay inactive out of cowardice and indifference--when around them human beings are humiliated and destroyed--are the most dangerous people in the world. I didn't need his closing thoughts on ethics, and I would like to have learned more about what the villagers themselves did to protect the refugees. But the parts the author did well were so astonishing, it still gets five stars. It left me asking myself, "What exploited people groups can I help and how?"

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More powerful than evil, August 15, 2005

By 

Richard Menninger (Ottawa, KS USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed (Paperback)

Philip Hallie, a Jewish philosopher, had slipped in to a state of depression as a result of his research of human cruelty, especially regarding the Holocaust. He felt as though he was a prisoner in that he wished harm on evil doers and had himself become untouched by suffering. He was doing research when he noticed something unusual, he was weeping. The reason? He had come across a short article about a village in France, which had resisted Hitler during the French Occupation (1940-1944). The village was the pacifistic Le Chambon.

The book at hand is the result of Hallie's research (conducted in mid 1970's) into the events surrounding this village. He visited Le Chambon and interviewed several people. The main character of the resistance was André Trocmé (deceased in 1971), a Protestant pastor, who with help of many-including his wife, Magda-provided a safe haven for Jews (especially Jewish children). The book essentially covers the years 1934-1944, with many anecdotes and observations. The bottom line for Hallie is that `ethics' can only make a difference if action is taken. The people of Le Chambon simply helped the Jews because `it was the right thing to do.'

This book is an easy read yet one that will make the reader think. There is an implicit religious basis for the peoples' ethics but a strength of the book is that there are no saints. Especially prevalent is André Trocmé's humanity; he struggles immensely with death, especially of his mother and one of his sons. If you are looking for a morality based on deep and explicit theology you will not find it here. But everyone should take the following from this book: if your ethical stance is to lessen the evil in this world, then helping those who are in harm's way is as powerful, if not more so, than any show of violence.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you've given up on humanity, give this book a try., November 25, 1998

By 

Kevin C. Manus (Macon, Georgia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed (Paperback)

This book stands as one of the top ten influential books in my life. Hallie details the struggle of a Protestant village in Nazi-controlled France to save Jews from persecution. Despite the obvious risks and the many sacrifices, the village hides and transports Jews beyond the reach of the Nazis. I found the village's decision and determination to fight a persecution unconnected to themselves amazing. It is an interesting challenge for each of us to evaluate how willing we are to show love for others.