Synopses & Reviews
In telling Pierre-Charles Toureilleand#8217;s story, Tela Zasloff also describes the wide-ranging network of Protestant pastors and lay people in southern French villages who participated in an aggressive rescue effort. She delves into their motivations, including their Huguenot heritage as members of a religious minority.
Review
"An important work, exploring the relationship between individualism and altruism, and between membership in religious communities and civic action."—Daniel Resnick, Carnegie Mellon University
Review
and#147;Pastor Toureille was an energetic leader in the international effort to help war refugees, mostly Jewish, in defeated France after 1940. Tela Zasloff, in a labor of love, explores the moral dilemmas of charity within an evil tyranny and brings back the memory of Toureille himself in all his prickly and indomitable humanity.and#8221;and#151;Robert O. Paxton, author of Vichy France
Review
and#147;Zasloffand#8217;s skillful use of surviving records fills in the background of Vichy Franceand#8217;s shameful collaboration with the Germans, and the dilemma of the Christian churches, torn between their loyalty to the French state and their humanitarian sympathies with those suffering at the Nazisand#8217; hands.and#8221;and#151;Congress Monthly
Review
and#147;A welcome contribution to the relatively small corpus of scholarship of Huguenot efforts to shield Jews from persecution during the Second World War. . . . Zasloffand#8217;s biography of Pierre[-Charles] Toureille offers a [broad] view of official Protestant aid networks dedicated to helping refugees of all nationalities and religions.and#8221;and#151;French Studies
Synopsis
This is the story of a Holocaust rescuer, Pierre Toureille, a French Protestant pastor whose efforts resulted in the rescue of hundreds of refugees, most of them Jewish. Inspired by his Huguenot heritage, Pastor Toureille participated in international Protestant church efforts to combat Nazism during the 1930s and headed a major refugee aid organization in Vichy France during World War II. After the war, Pastor Toureille was honored by the Jewish organization Yad Vashem as one of the "Righteous Among the Nations."
In telling Toureille’s story, Tela Zasloff also depicts the wide-ranging network of Protestant pastors and lay people in southern French villages who participated in an aggressive rescue effort. She delves into their motivations, including their heritage as members of a religious minority. Toureille’s rescue work under the Vichy regime, partly official and then increasingly clandestine as the war progrressed. was a crucial part of the French non-violent "spiritual resistance" against Nazism.
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. 257-261) and index.
Synopsis
This is the story of Pierre-Charles Toureille, a French Protestant pastor of Huguenot heritage whose efforts resulted in the rescue of hundreds of refugees during World War II, most of them Jewish.
About the Author
Tela Zasloff is the author of Saigon Dreaming: Recollections of Indochina Days. She lives in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
Table of Contents
Prologue
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
and#160;
1. Pierre-Charles Toureille, 1900and#150;1976
2. To Be a Huguenot
3. Pierre Toureilleand#8217;s Early Years and the Ecumenical
Movement of the 1930s
4. The War Years, an Introduction
5. The War, 1939and#150;1940
6. The War, 1941
7. The War, 1942
8. The War, 1943and#150;1945 and After
Epilogue
and#160;
Appendix: Postwar Tributes and Awards
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Indexand#160;