Erich Schwam, a Jewish refugee who arrived in the town with his mother and father in 1943, bequeathed an amount presumably at least a few hundred thousand euros, according to the notary in charge of his will. .
“We are very honored and we will increase the amount according to Mr. Schwam’s will, “the town’s deputy mayor, Denise Vallat, told CNN on Saturday.
In the will, dated 9 November 2020, Schwam wrote that he ‘wants to resign [the village residents] for the welcome, many people have expanded me in the field of education. ‘He asks that the money be used to finance scholarships and schools in the town.
Major contributions will also be made to three foundations that support health workers, children with leukemia and animal rights, according to a press release from City Hall.
Le Chambon and nearby towns welcomed Jewish refugees, mostly children, after 1940, according to the town hall website. Barack Obama mentions the town in his remarks during the Holocaust Days of Remembrance Ceremony in April 2009 and Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, awarded the congregation the title of Fair in 1990.
Schwam’s father was a doctor and his mother helped set up a library in the Rivesaltes camp, one of many set up by the Vichy regime to put Jews in prison. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, thousands were transported from there to Auschwitz.
Friedel Reiter, a young Swiss social worker who at the time volunteered to help refugees, recorded the family’s information and probably helped move them to Le Chambon when the Rivesaltes camp closed in 1942, the town hall said. said.
At the age of 12, Schwam was taken into the care of Secours Suisse, a sub-sector of the Red Cross of Switzerland that specialized during the war to help children, where his mother also worked. Schwam enrolled in a pharmacy course at Leon University in 1950 and graduated in 1957.
The town hall is not sure if he returned to Le Chambon regularly and appeals for more information about ‘the little Viennese Jewish boy’ who was so generous more than 75 years later.
“We did not know Mr Schwam, we are now trying to determine who he was and what happened to him here,” Vallat said.
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