An Austrian who fled the Nazis with his family during World War II bequeathed much of his fortune to the French village whose residents hid them from persecution for years. Eric Schwam, who died at the age of 90 on December 25, wrote the surprise gift in his will for Chambon-sur-Lignon, located on a remote mountain plateau in southeastern France that historically has a large Protestant community known for offering shelter for those in need.
“It is a large sum for the village,” Mayor Jean-Michel Eyraud told AFP.
He declined to specify the amount, as the will was still being settled, but his predecessor, who told a local website that she met Schwam and his wife twice to discuss the gift, said it was about 2 million. euros (US $ 2.4 million).
Photo by JEAN-PHILIPPE KSIAZEK / AFP via Getty Images
Schwam and his family arrived in 1943 and remained hidden in a school during the war. They remained until 1950.
Later, he studied pharmacy and married a Catholic from the region near Lyon, where they lived.
Eyraud said Schwam asked that the money be used for educational and youth initiatives, in particular scholarships.
Some 2,500 Jews were welcomed and protected during World War II by Chambon-sur-Lignon, whose residents were honored as “Righteous Among the Nations” by Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial center.
Over the centuries, the village has welcomed a wide variety of people fleeing religious or political persecution, from priests taken underground during the French Revolution to Spanish Republicans during the civil war of the 1930s and, more recently, migrants and refugees from the East Middle and Africa.