Informative and personal. I wanted to feel more engaged than I did. Perhaps the cultural divide is at play. I do not know most of the agencies and organizations Trocmé references, so I often felt a bit afloat in the narrative.

The Memoirs of Andre Trocme’ The Pastor Who Rescued Jews


Andre Trocme, the French protestant pastor, was a strong voice for pacifism during WWII. He bravely faced Nazi soldiers and negotiated in church politics with great aplomb. He usually went from one uncomfortable living situation to another with sometimes short food rations, meanwhile taking care of his wife and four children and a number of parishioners. Yes, he rescued some Jews. He performed a number of acts to serve humanity.

The language, the documentation, and the reading level of the book are scholarly in nature. This is NOT intended to be beach reading. The point of view seems to be that the reader is already somewhat familiar with this person.

These memoirs go into a great deal of detail about his life but he does not highlight the actions that led to him getting the "Righteous among the Nations" award by the Holocaust remembrance center Yad Vashem.

In fact, no awards of any kind are listed here. The book also lacks an index, a bibliography, or any photographs, maps, drawings or diagrams.

I would not recommend this book for light reading, but it does give an additional view of the events of the two World Wars and the culture of the European protestant churches of that time frame.

The Memoirs of André Trocmé is a deeply moving account of the French Protestant pastor whose quiet heroism saved hundreds of Jews during World War II. More than a wartime narrative, the memoir traces Trocmé’s spiritual and moral formation—from a strict bourgeois childhood and personal tragedy to his embrace of Christian pacifism. His resistance, rooted in faith and conscience, is recounted with humility and emotional clarity. Edited by Patrick Cabanel, the memoir offers a powerful testament to nonviolent resistance, moral courage, and the quiet strength of conviction. An essential read for anyone interested in faith, history, or ethical leadership.