![\"Museum\"](\"http:\/\/orenu.co.il\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Museum-300x199.jpg\")
PARIS \u2014 A French town where dozens of residents saved thousands of Jews from the Holocaust will open a museum to commemorate the rescuers\u2019 actions.<\/p>\nPARIS \u2014 A French town where dozens of residents saved thousands of Jews from the Holocaust will open a museum to commemorate the rescuers\u2019 actions.<\/p>\n
The Memory of Chambon museum is scheduled to open its doors on June 5 in Chambon-sur-Lignon, 70 miles south of Lyon in southern France, according to the French news agency AFP.<\/p>\n
The new museum will commemorate the actions of at least 35 residents who, according to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, prevented French authorities under the pro-Nazi Vichy government from deporting and murdering approximately 5,000 Jews.<\/p>\n
The rescue was initiated and led by the town\u2019s pastor, Andre Trocme, and his wife Magda. The couple and another 33 townsfolk have been recognized as Righteous among the Nations, a title conferred by Yad Vashem to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.<\/p>\n
Trocme hid Jews in his parish and smuggled many others into neutral Switzerland.<\/p>\n
According to Yad Vashem, the Vichy authorities became aware of his activities and cautioned him to cease. His response was: \u201cThese people came here for help and for shelter. I am their shepherd. A shepherd does not forsake his flock\u2026 I do not know what a Jew is. I know only human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andre Trocme was arrested but released. His cousin, Daniel Trocme, died in the Buchenwald concentration camp, where he was sent for rescuing Jewish children in his capacity as director of a local children\u2019s home.<\/p>\n