A French village which saved 3,000 Yidden from the Holocaust was admitted last night to the state memorial for national heroes.

The heroism of Chambon-sur-Lignon was largely unknown, or ignored, in France for many years after the end of the Second World War. Two Protestant pastors in the Cévennes mountains in south-east France persuaded thousands of villagers to hide Yidden, including many children.

The story of the village still remains little known abroad, except in Israel. Chambon-sur-Lignon is the only place – rather than individual – listed in Israel’s official roll-call of the Righteous of Nations: Gentiles who rescued Jews from Nazi persecution.

It is estimated that 3,000 Jews were saved by the people of Chambon-sur-Lignon, compared to the 1,200 rescued by Oskar Schindler, the Austrian businessman celebrated in the 1993 movie Schindler’s List.

Last night the village was honoured along with 2,739 French individuals who risked their lives to save Jews from 1940 to 1944 on a plaque unveiled by President Jacques Chirac in an elaborate ceremony at the Panthéon in Paris.

“Ignoring all risks, they embodied the honour of France, its values of justice, tolerance and humanity,” the plaque read.

The mostly Protestant village has always been reluctant to be celebrated for its heroism. The present mayor, Francis Valla, declined to attend last night’s ceremony, preferring to attend a commemorative exhibition at the village railway station where hundreds of Jewish children and other refugees were welcomed by local people during the war.

The village was included in the list of the Righteous of Nations by the Israeli government in 1990. But it had to wait until 2004 for official French recognition, when M. Chirac chose to travel to the village to make a speech against racism and anti-Semitism.

TI