10th June 1944 ~ Oradour-sur-Glane

On the 10th June 1944, a regiment of the 2nd Waffen-SS Panzer Division Das Reich, moving north through France, killed the entire population of a thriving French village called Oradour-sur-Glane. 642 men, women and children were shot and burned. They then ransacked and destroyed the buildings. 

There has never been a universally accepted explanation for this atrocity. It has been suggested that part of the reason was 'in retaliation' for partisan activity in Tulle, where the same regiment of around 200 soldiers had hung 99 men from the lampposts the previous day, 9th June 1944. Tulle is my local town, and it is difficult to imagine that this happened just 17 years before I was born, and when my parents were teenagers. 

Charles de Gaulle ordered that the village of Oradour-sur-Glane be maintained exactly as it was left, as a permanent memorial; a new village was built nearby. Wandering its streets reminded me of Pompeii. We visited the site on the 30th April. The current presidential candidate, Emmanuel Macron, visited on the 28th. 

It is devastating to see photographs of the villagers dancing and eating and going about their lives just days before the massacre. It's impossible to understand how human beings can be capable of such evil towards their fellow men. In the book shop, there is a section of books about the massacre in English next to another section of the same books in German. I noticed that a German couple were feeling awkward about looking at the books in their native language, hovering by the English section and leaning over to look. I can understand their action, but they need to know that there is no shame in being German and visiting this place. I'm glad they wanted to come. The crime committed here was one committed by a group of humans against another group of humans; the perpetrators' German-ness is irrelevant.

The men of the village were rounded up and separated into around six groups and imprisoned in various barns. Their legs were peppered with bullets using machine guns to stop them escaping. Later, they were doused in petrol and burned. Six men escaped; one of those was found and shot.

The cafe beside the church

The women and children were rounded up and imprisoned in the church. An incendiary device was positioned at the door and any women or children who tried to escape the fire were machine-gunned down. There were 247 women and 205 children. One woman managed to escape.

Altar railings inside the church