The time: 1943
The place: The mountainous village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, part of German-subdued France.
Hitler is lapping up frothy pools of power; innocent blood has become a substitute for rain water; fear governs.
And Le Chambon could care less.
Instead, Magda Trocme rises out of bed to a subtle knock at the door and a shuffling of feet. On her doorstep stands--no surprise--an anxious mother-daughter pair, with a gasped, stolen breath where a husband-father should have stood.
Magda ushers them inside--her own children not even bothering to stir from their sleep, for every night there is a knock, and then--an open door.
Fearful prey hidden in a swollen, defiant town.
The world below their mountain crag rises and falls with fresh burial mounds.
Why are they immune to such undulating ripples of death?
It is not because of safety: one night, there is a knock--but afterwards, a yell. Magda's husband rises, but not of his own volition. Magda's children are awake now, and all of Le Chambon spills onto the streets.
Arrests must be made for harboring the enemy.
The enemy of mother and daughter, once human--now beast.
And though every innate longing for survival is screaming against it, the people of Le Chambon do not dash back into the false safety of their bedrooms, or shy away from their "beastly" new roomates.
Tromce marches past, a prisoner, and they follow willingly.
Hundreds of other feet have pounded past the natural stops of human nature, as well. The officers pulling Tromce forward in that last, bittersweet parade certainly did; they crush their consciences with every step they take.
Le Chambon has a happy ending, though. Tromce returns; lives are saved from the world's fever below.
Yet humanity's trek continues.
A constant marching of boots over innocence. A pitter-patter of toes toward a premature end. A confident stride towards what is right, but what might never ultimately be.
All are different paths, my friend, and we must all travel forward down one.
Do you know which path you will take?
Which path you are on?
