Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed: The Story Of The Village Of Le Chambon And How Goodness Happened There

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.Review"The subject makes a deservedly beautiful book. Mr. Hallie is wholly equal to it."--Paul Horgan"The thing that makes the story of this village supremely beautiful is simply that it happened. These events took place and therefore demand place in our view of the world. If awareness of history has pushed us to the point of losing faith in ourselves, the case may also be, as professor Hallie says, that 'redemption lies in remembering.' "Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed is one of the rarest of books, the kind that can change the way we live."--"Harper's"If, as has often been alleged, our old ethics do not work well, the alternatives work worse. But what is stunning about the people of Le Chambon is that the old ethics worked perfectly for them. Its citizens attained in virtue the perfection that in artistic creation or performance we recognize as glamorous--magical, mystifying, romantic, alluring. The Chamonnais set new standards of excellence."--"The New Yorker"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 ReviewAbout 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.