Trocmé's mother dies in a car accident caused by his father's anger, shaping his lifelong dedication to nonviolence and the sanctity of life.

Trocmé meets Italian student Magda Grilli while studying in New York; the couple falls in love and returns to France to marry.

Trocmé recruits Édouard Theis to help found the Cévenol school in Le Chambon, combining academic preparation with a philosophy of nonviolence.

Germany and France sign an armistice that places Le Chambon in the Vichy-controlled unoccupied zone of southern France.

The first Jewish refugee arrives at the presbytery seeking help, and Magda provides food and shelter despite hostility from the local mayor.

The Cévenol school refuses to participate in the fascist flag salute that Pétain's government requires, committing Le Chambon's first open act of resistance.

Trocmé meets Quaker organizer Burns Chalmers in Marseilles, and together they devise a plan to shelter endangered Jewish children in Le Chambon.

Trocmé's students present visiting Vichy official Georges Lamirand with a letter boldly condemning the arrest and deportation of Jews in France.

A police chief orders Trocmé to hand over a list of Jewish refugees; Trocmé refuses and immediately mobilizes village scouts to warn them.

Vichy police arrest Trocmé, Theis, and Darcissac for their rescue work and send them to the internment camp Saint-Paul d'Eyjeaux.

Trocmé and Theis are released from the internment camp without signing a loyalty oath; the remaining prisoners are later transported to death camps.

The Gestapo raids the House of the Rocks and arrests Daniel Trocmé and all his young refugee charges for deportation to Poland.

After learning his name appears on the Gestapo's death list, Trocmé reluctantly flees Le Chambon and goes into hiding across France.

Jean-Pierre Trocmé is found dead in the presbytery bathroom, devastating both parents and permanently ending Magda's religious faith.

After the war, Trocmé pursues international nonviolence work for the rest of his life, and the Cévenol school continues to thrive.

The pool follows André Trocmé from the childhood loss that forged his commitment to nonviolence through his marriage to Magda and their arrival in Le Chambon. It traces the community's escalating resistance against Vichy and Nazi authority, from founding the Cévenol school to sheltering Jewish refugees and defying police demands. The central arc covers Trocmé's arrest alongside Theis, their principled stand at the internment camp, and their release while fellow prisoners were shipped to their deaths. The Gestapo's brutal raid on the House of the Rocks and the deportation of Trocmé's cousin Daniel mark the story's darkest turn. The death of Trocmé's son Jean-Pierre delivers a final devastating blow that permanently destroys Magda's religious faith. The pool closes with the postwar period, when Trocmé continues his international nonviolence work and the Cévenol school endures as his legacy.

The essential story of Trocmé and Le Chambon's resistance.

During World War I, Trocmé witnesses German soldiers' brutal treatment of Russian prisoners, deepening his resolve to help those who suffer.

Trocmé meets German soldier Kindler, a conscientious objector who carries no weapon and trusts entirely in God for protection, profoundly inspiring him.

While serving a poor mining parish, Trocmé helps a man named Célisse overcome a severe struggle with alcohol addiction.

Célisse dies by suicide after Trocmé's family leaves the mining parish, unable to resist temptation without Trocmé's steadying presence.

The Trocmés transform the neglected Le Chambon presbytery into a vibrant, colorful household that reflects the community they are building.

The Cévenol school staff refuses to sign an oath of loyalty to Marshal Pétain, further cementing Le Chambon's commitment to nonviolent resistance.

Amélie, the Darbyite caretaker of the presbytery, physically blocks the door to prevent local women from ringing the bell in honor of Pétain.

Magda's health collapses under the relentless burden of sheltering refugees until a devout Protestant volunteer named Alice Reynier arrives to help.

André Trocmé recruits his cousin Daniel to manage The Crickets, the first funded house established to shelter Jewish refugee children in Le Chambon.

Young doctor Roger Le Forestier, who studied under Albert Schweitzer, arrives in Le Chambon and convinces Trocmé to let him live at the presbytery.

Le Forestier refuses the Maquis's demand to use his ambulance for transporting armed soldiers, citing the red cross's protection of noncombatants.

Le Forestier is arrested by German police after Maquis soldiers secretly hide a loaded revolver in the backseat of his car.

Major Schmehling is so moved by Le Forestier's passionate defense of nonviolence during his prosecution that he refuses to sentence him to death.

The Gestapo removes Le Forestier from his work group and takes him to the woods outside Lyons, where he is shot.

Magda Trocmé visits Philip Hallie and his family at their Connecticut home, quickly befriending his teenage son Louie.

This pool traces the people and incidents surrounding Trocmé's leadership, beginning with the World War I experiences that hardened his pacifist conviction before he ever arrived in Le Chambon. It covers the quiet community-building work of the Trocmés, including smaller acts of resistance like the loyalty oath refusal and the silent bell, alongside the personal toll the occupation took on Magda's health. The stories of Célisse, Daniel, and Roger Le Forestier illustrate the deep personal cost of principled commitment to nonviolence. Le Forestier's story dominates the latter half, from his exuberant arrival and eccentric warmth through his principled confrontation with the Maquis, his wrongful arrest, and his tragic execution outside Lyons. Major Schmehling's decision during Le Forestier's prosecution ripples forward with lasting consequences for the entire village. The pool ends with Magda's postwar friendship with Philip Hallie, signaling the enduring human legacy of what the village achieved.

The supporting lives and sacrifices that sustained Le Chambon.

Trocmé studies at a New York seminary but feels disconnected from the intimate personal relationship with God that first called him to faith.

When Magda nearly dies from a hemorrhage after childbirth, Trocmé is startled to discover his own relief at surviving above all else.

Eastern European and German refugees fleeing Nazi persecution begin arriving in Le Chambon in growing numbers as war spreads across Europe.

A church leader orders Trocmé to stop helping refugees; the Le Chambon presbytery council flatly refuses his offered resignation and insists he continue.

After the Lamirand letter incident, the local prefect threatens to have Trocmé deported if he continues defying government orders.

The morning after police arrive in Le Chambon, Trocmé and Theis preach a sermon establishing the village's biblical duty to protect all refugees.

At the internment camp, Trocmé and Theis hold Protestant services that gain remarkable popularity among prisoners, alarming the camp's officers.

Near the end of their internment, Trocmé and Theis refuse to sign a loyalty oath while Darcissac signs and is freed ahead of them.

Magda bicycles to the Gestapo-raided House of the Rocks and nearly exposes Daniel as its leader while posing as a maid.

Magda and Jean-Pierre witness a Nazi soldier brutally beating a Jewish boy with phylacteries on the road to the House of the Rocks.

While in hiding, Trocmé sends for his son Jacques, and they share a rare period of closeness and ordinary daily life together.

Trocmé and Jacques narrowly escape a German checkpoint in Valence when officers realize Trocmé was not deliberately evading arrest.

Theis evades the Gestapo by working with the all-women rescue network Cimade to guide Jewish refugees safely across the border into Switzerland.

Schmehling tells the Trocmés after the war that guilt over Le Forestier's death moved him to prevent a Gestapo massacre of Le Chambon.

Philip Hallie, numbed by years of studying cruelty, reads about Le Chambon and is unexpectedly moved to tears for the first time.

This pool focuses on revelations and turning points that expose the moral and emotional interior of the Le Chambon story. It opens with Trocmé's spiritual restlessness at seminary and an early confrontation with his own self-interest during Magda's life-threatening crisis, establishing the human complexity beneath his heroism. The arrival of refugees, the church's demand that Trocmé stop his work, and the terrifying prefect's threat after the Lamirand letter chart the mounting pressure on the village. The internment camp section shows how Trocmé and Theis held to their principles even when fellow prisoners criticized their refusal to lie or sign an oath. The pool's final movement traces violence creeping into Le Chambon's margins through Magda's harrowing experience during the Gestapo raid, the horror of witnessing a soldier's brutality in the street, and the narrow escape at the Valence checkpoint. It closes with Schmehling's postwar confession and Hallie's own moment of transformation upon first discovering the story.