[visited 15 May 2013]
On the afternoon of 10 June 1944 elements the SS Waffen panzer division Das Reich diviion swept into the town of Oradour-sur-Glane. The unit was racing towards the Normandy beaches to assist in stopping the Allied advance. For reasons that remain unclear the Germans rounded up all the inhabitants present that day, some 642 men, women and children.
The men were split up into several groups and herded into nearby barns where they were shot and their bodies set on fire.
The women and children were placed in the town church where they were machine-gunned and the bodies set on fire, many while still alive.
Only a handful managed to escape.
Before leaving the soldiers set the town on fire and destroyed whatever they couldn’t take with them.
At the end of the war the French government decided to leave the village as a memorial to the horrific atrocity.
The cemetery next to the ruined village today contains an obelisk dedicated to those killed that day (see photo below). You'll note two coffin-shaped objects at the base, each covered by glass containing the bones of those who could not be identified. The photos that follow contain images of many of those who were subsequently interred or memorialized with their families, a lasting testament to those souls who perished that terrible afternoon. . .
For a remarkably thorough and exhaustive discussion of that day you will want to visit: https://www.oradour.info/.
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| entrance |
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| memorial with the back wall containing the names of those who died on 10 June 1944 |
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| one of the two ossuaries |
Souviens-toi!
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