This is a terrible, heart-wrenching story… On 10 June 1944, the village of Oradour-sur-Glane, in the lovely rolling hills northwest of Limoges, France, was destroyed when 643 civilians, including non-combatant women and children, were massacred by a German Waffen-SS company. Only six people survived – and this what they reported: rolling through town, the SS men then began shooting at the men, aiming for their legs. When the victims fell, they were doused with fuel and burned. Then an incendiary device was set outside the church, where the women and children were hiding, and when they tried to escape, they were gunned down. A total of 190 men, 247 women and 205 children died in the attack.
What’s left stands today, the ruins preserved at the orders of General Charles de Gaulle as a memorial to the cruelty of the Nazi occupation. My friends and I spent 90 minutes moving – almost speechlessly – through the streets, church and cemetery. It was if we were walking through a plein-air holocaust. I find this so difficult to write about that I’ll let the pictures tell the story.
As ugly wars continue, around our globe, we must always Remember! – and learn from – the real things that happen to people when Evil asserts power, like Oradour.
The Horror of Oradour-sur-Glane at the end of World War II
