Reflection Questions
Weapons of the Spirit, directed by Pierre Sauvage
1. What is Sauvage's relationship with the little village
of Le Chambon?
2. Why did he give the documentary this title?
3. What part of France was the little village of Le Chambon in during the
Second World War?
4. What was the policy of the Petain government toward the Jews during the
period of occupation?
5. What was U. S. policy toward Jewish immigration during this period?
6. Was there anywhere in the world that welcomed Jews during this period
of history?
7. Was there much public support in Vichy France for the German policies
toward the Jews?
8. The majority of Chambonnais were Huguenots. What is a Huguenot?
9. What happened during the time the Chambonnais called "The Desert."
Why was it important in what happened later during the Second World War?
How does this relate to what Christ says in the Sermon on the Mount about
the Beatitudes?
10. Early on the documentary, one of the characters explained the Chambonnais
by saying that they were people who "still believed in something," and that
for them, helping people was "a normal thing to do." Two questions:
First, what do you suppose the commentator meant when he said that they "still
believed in something"? Second, was what they did "a normal thing to
do"?
11. The two pastors of the town – André Trocmé and Edouard
Theis – were they popular or particularly successful Protestant pastors in
France?
12. According to the Swiss instructor at the school for refugee children,
there had been a veranda on the school where they gathered in the evenings
to talk. What did they talk about?
13. Why did the people of Le Chambon feel particularly close to the Jews?
14. According to a commentator, these were people who felt that their faith
would be in vain if it weren't followed up and confirmed by what?
15. What was your judgment of Monsieur Laminade, the man who had been Minister
for Youth during the Vichy regime?
16. What was your judgment of the police officers who came to the village
to arrest the Jews but said to the Chambonnais villagers: "What they're making
us do is horrible"?
17. At one point in the interview with Madame and Monsieur Hétier,
she says about what they did during the war: "It just made sense. It
was a benefit for us?" What did she mean? What would be your
judgment of the situation? Was it a benefit for them? Would it
have been a benefit for you, if you had been put in that situation?
18. Although the school started by Trocmé and Theis had a lot of Jewish
children in it, according to one of the teachers, the Jews and Christians
got along because "no one ever made a disparaging remark." You're in
a school. This school has people of various faiths, classes, and ethnic
backgrounds. Can it be said of this community that "no one ever makes
a disparaging remark about one another"? Do you think anyone would
make disparaging remarks if all of sudden a large number of refugee students
were enrolled and showed up on the campus?
19. Theis said that he thought the Christian faith could be summed up on
two statements. What were they?
20. One British woman who had worked in the village during the war said of
the Christian faith of the Chambonnais that, "it was not a sentimental faith."
What did she mean? She also said that it was a faith that "had been
put to the test and not found wanting." Would the same be true if your
faith were put to the test?
21. At a certain point in the film, Sauvage says that "the age of martyrs
was to resume in Le Chambon." Who was he speaking about? (There
were two in particular.) What is the classic Christian view of martyrs?
What does the word "martyr" mean? Are martyrs failures?
22. One of these "martyrs" had written to his family in the year before his
death that he felt "questioned by life." He suggested that the answer
he gave, he would give "only to himself"; that he was not interested in success
in public, worldly terms, but only in terms of becoming a worthy person.
He was captured by the Nazis and died in Bergen-Belson Concentration Camp.
Was he a success? Or not? Or was he instead a foolish dreamer?
Or worse, a sort of inept loser?
23. One of the people who lived in the village during the Second World War
was a person who actually did later gain some celebrity: namely, the French
existentialist novelist Albert Camus. What novel did he write while
he was living in the town? Compare his attitude with that of the Rescuers
who lived in Le Chambon.
24.At a certain point in the film, Madame Hétier says very bluntly:
"We didn't ask ourselves about what we were doing. It was very simple
– uncomplicated. It just seemed the human thing to do." Was it
simple and uncomplicated? Was it the "human" thing to do? Are
humans falling short of their "humanity" if they don't do such things?
25. A commentator at this point in the film says of the Chambonnais what
Hallie often says: They were just "doing what came naturally." What
does that mean? Compare this sense of "doing what comes naturally"
with our usual sense of the term, embodied, for example, in the lyrics of
the song that goes:
"You and me we ain't nothin' but mammals,
So let's do it like they do it on the Discovery Channel."
Were the Chambonnais just "doing what comes naturally"? Were they people
who were just "coolin' it," "lyin' low," "chillin'," "takin' things easy"?
Were they "hip"? Were they "cool"? Would such slogans have served
them well? Would they have served the Jewish refugees well?
26. Toward the end of the documentary, while discussing the liberation of
France, Sauvage asserts that "the people of Le Chambon had never ceased to
be free." What did he mean? Is this true?
27. Did the refugees who were sheltered by the Chambonnais express their
gratitude after the war?
28. Did Pierre Sauvage's parents talk a great deal about the people of Le
Chambon? Did he learn a lot about the village from them?
29. Did you get the feeling that the Chambonnais were hurt much by the fact
that not much gratitude had been expressed to them after the war?
30. The documentary suggests that the memory of their ancestors and parents
was very important to the Chambonnais and that it was important to them that
they become a "reflection of their image." Is it important to you to
become a "reflection of the image" of your parents and grandparents?
Is it important for many people you know? What do you think of a culture
were there is so much antipathy between children and their parents?
What do you think the Chambonnais would think of it? What do you think
MTV thinks of it? Why is this division in their interest? Is
it in yours?
31. At the end of the documentary, the British woman suggests a thesis which
Philip Hallie adverted to time and again: that Le Chambon was an altogether
"normal" village; that what happened in Le Chambon could have happened in
any community anywhere; and that, rather than being "extraordinary" people,
these were "ordinary" people doing extraordinary things. Do you believe
this?
32. The documentary says on several occasions that most of the rescuers of
Jews in Europe were not aware of each other. One of the excuses many
people give in such circumstances, given the unbelievable magnitude of the
evil they are facing, is to say: "We had no choice. There was nothing
we could have done. It would have done no good anyway." What
is your assessment of that judgment?
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Interview After the Movie:
1. In his interview with Bill Moyers, Pierre Sauvage
says that he "went into the world as a nothing." What was he referring
to and what did he mean?
2. During the interview, both Sauvage and Moyers point to the importance
for the Chambonnais that they had a "strong sense of self"; that they "knew
who they were." First, do you think this is ture? Second, do
you think the Chambonnais would have understood the comment. Third,
do you think you have a "strong sense of self" and "know who you are" in
the way that the Chambonnais did?
3. Again in the interview as in the documentary, Sauvage says that the Chambonnais
merely "did what came naturally." Did they? Were these "heroic"
acts? Were they "extraordinary"? Were they "supererogatory acts"?
(If you don't know the meaning of the word, look it up!)
4. According to Sauvage, good novelists usually have their characters agonize
over decisions. What did Sauvage come to think of this? What
did he say about "people who agonize"?
5. Sauvage repeats another theme that is powerfully present in Hallie's piece:
that the problem wasn't so much people like Hitler and Goebbels (to whose
crimes many people compared their own acts). What was the bigger problem?
Is this a problem in American culture? In the culture of this university?
In you? Or am I being too dramatic? Should I just "chill out,"
"take it easy," and "keep cool"?
6. Moyers and Sauvage point to a classic paradox about the Holocaust: the
Holocaust took place in Christian Europe, and yet most of the rescuers were
Christians who were heavily influenced and motivated to rescue Jews precisely
because of their Christian faith. Analyze this puzzle.
7. What did Pierre Sauvage's sister mean when she said hugging Madame Hétier
was "like hugging a tree"?
8. Sauvage points out that for him and for other people living in L.A., "for
us, things are so hard." But for the people of Le Chambon, things were
"so easy." Indeed, he suggests that the people of Le Chambon "derived
strength from their effort." Why do you suppose that is?
9.You are in a university with a lot of intellectuals. Your professor
is one of them. How did the intellectuals behave during the Holocaust?
What does it mean that you are being taught by a bunch of intellectuals?
10. One of the virtues that was obviously important for the people of Le
Chambon was "integrity." What is "integrity"? Is it a virtue
you think much about?
11. As I've been writing these questions, I've been sitting in a coffee shop
across from the University watching people drive by. What sort of behavior
do you suppose I have been observing on the road? Do you think this
activity has been very much in accord with the themes of the documentary,
or not? What sort of driver are you? If I told you that you had
a moral obligation to drive safely on the roads, act decently toward all
the strangers you encounter there, and think as much or more about others
as about yourself, would you tell me to "get real"? If I said that
people had a moral obligation to act like the villagers of Le Chambon, would
you tell me to "get real" – "no one does that" – "it wouldn't make any difference
anyway," and "why don't you mind your own business!"?
12. What did Pierre Sauvage mean when he said that Americans think too much
about and put too much stock in the LAW?
13. What was the thesis Bill Moyers advanced about "leaders" and their relationship
with their people? (Do we, in other words, get the leaders we deserve?)
14. The people of Le Chambon were actually risking their lives. For
us, we don't usually have to risk our lives. What are the things we
more often have to risk? What, according to Pierre Sauvage, is the
choice that we need to make?
15. Why was Sauvage glad that he didn't change the title "Weapons of the
Spirit"? Why in the end did he think that was a good title?
16. Moyers and Sauvage make several references to Europe in the 1930s and
40s as a "Christian culture." Was it?
17. Sauvage asserts that the example of Le Chambon shows that "the spirit
does have power to transcend circumstances"; that "it is possible for people
to care." Is it?
18. Moyer and Sauvage also seem to think it is important to make clear to
children that "the darkness is real"; that "evil is there." Do you
agree? They also feel that we should reveal to kids both "the magnitude
of evil" along with "the possibility of good." Do you agree?