An Austrian man who fled the Nazis with his family during World War II left much of his fortune to the French village whose inhabitants hid them from persecution for years. Eric Schwam, who died on December 25 at the age of 90, wrote the surprise gift in his will for Chambon-sur-Lignon, situated on a remote mountain plateau in southeastern France that historically has a large Protestant community known for providing of shelter to people in need. .
“It is a large amount for the village,” Mayor Jean-Michel Eyraud told AFP.
He declined to specify the amount, as the will was still pending, but his predecessor, who told a local website that she had met Schwam and his wife twice to discuss the gift, said it was about 2 million euros ($ 2 million). 4 million).
Photo by JEAN-PHILIPPE KSIAZEK / AFP via Getty Images
Schwam and his family arrived in 1943 and were in hiding in a school during the war. They stayed until 1950.
Later he studied pharmacy and married a Catholic woman from the area near Lyon, where they lived.
Eyraud said Schwam asked for the money to be used for educational and youth initiatives, in particular grants.
About 2,500 Jews were sheltered and protected during World War II by Chambon-sur-Lignon, whose residents were honored as “Righteous Among the Nations” by the Israeli Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Center.
Over the centuries, the village has welcomed a wide range of people fleeing religious or political persecution, from priests who went into hiding during the French Revolution to Spanish republicans during the Civil War of the 1930s, and more recently migrants and refugees from the Middle East and Africa.