An Austrian man who fled the Nazis with his family during the second world war has left a large part of his fortune to the French village whose residents hid them from persecution for years.
Eric Schwam, who died aged 90 on 25 December, wrote the surprise gift into his will for Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, located on a remote mountain plateau in south-east France that historically has a large Protestant community known for offering shelter to those in need.
“It’s a large amount for the village,” the mayor, Jean-Michel Eyraud, said. However, he declined to specify the amount since the will was still being sorted out, but his predecessor, who told a local website that she met Schwam and his wife twice to discuss the gift, said it was about €2m (USD1.22m).
Schwam and his family arrived in 1943 and were hidden in a school for the duration of the war, and remained until 1950.
He later studied pharmacy and married a Catholic woman from Lyon. According to local reports, the couple did not have children and he was a widower.
Mayor Eyraud said Schwam wanted the money to be used for educational and youth initiatives, in particular scholarships.
About 2,500 Jews were taken in and protected during the war by Le Chambon-sur-Lignon.
Le Chambon-sur-Lignon has a population of only about 2,500 people but has a reputation as a place of refuge dating back to the French Protestant Huguenots who fled religious persecution during the 17th Century. Over the centuries the village has taken in a wide range of people fleeing religious or political persecution, from priests driven into hiding during the French Revolution to Spanish republicans during the 1930s civil war, and more recently migrants and refugees from the Middle East and Africa.
From The Guardian (edited)
Photo Credit BBC
