David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

anniversary of the Vichy regime, Pétain
ordered towns across the country to ring
their church bells at noon on August 1.
Trocmé told the church custodian, a
woman named Amélie, not to bother.
Two summer residents of the town came
and complained. “The bell does not
belong to the marshal, but to God,”
Amélie told them flatly. “It is rung for
God—otherwise it is not rung.”
Throughout the winter and spring of
1940, conditions for Jews across Europe
grew progressively worse. A woman
appeared at the Trocmés’ door. She was
terrified and trembling from the cold.
She was Jewish, she said. Her life was
in danger. She had heard Le Chambon
was a welcoming place. “And I said,