FUGITIVE FROM NAZIS LEAVES HIS FORTUNE TO TOWN

A Jewish Austrian has left a bequest believed to be worth $3.1 million to the French village that sheltered him during the Second World War. Eric Schwan, who died on Dec. 25 aged 90, left a large part of his fortune to Chambon-sur-Lignon, a remote mountain village in southeast France that took in about 2,500 Jews fleeing Nazi persecution.

The exact value has not been made public, but a former mayor of the village told a local website it was more than two million euros.

A village of fewer than 2,500 inhabitants perched on a mountain plateau, Chambon-sur-Lignon is famous for the courage of its people during the Vichy regime and Nazi occupation. Led by the local pastor, the mostly Protestant villagers protected thousands of Jews, hiding them in private homes and farms. When search patrols came, the Jews would be hidden in the surrounding forests. When the soldiers left, the villagers would signal it was safe to come out by singing.

Schwan sheltered in the village as a teenager with his parents and maternal grandmother. They had previously spent time in the Camp de Rivesaltes, the notorious internment camp near Perpignan, but reached Chambon-sur-Lignon by 1943.

The village said Schwan had asked that the money be used to fund scholarships and other educational and youth initiatives.