Saint-Alban, une révolution psychiatrique

Overview

In France, 45,000 of the 70,000 institutionalized mentally ill patients died in French psychiatric hospitals during World War II. But not in Saint-Alban. It all began with a meeting in Lozère in a medieval castle converted into a psychiatric hospital in 1821 of four young psychiatrists: Paul Balvet, Francesc Tosquelles, Lucien Bonnafé, and André Chaurand. They hid those threatened by the ruling regime—members of the Resistance and Jews—and fought against hunger and Nazi oppression.