2018 Spring in Europe: Souviens-toi (Remember)

Thursday, we made the journey from the Loire Valley to the Dordogne. Our route took us through Limoges so we decided to make a stop at the infamous village of Oradour-sur-Glane. I have blogged about this place before but it bears repeating. At the entrance to this village is a sign with the words:

For those unfamiliar with the history of this village, it is a grim reminder of the horrors of war. The village was destroyed on June 10th, 1944, when 642 of its inhabitants, including women and children, were massacred by a German Waffen-SS company and the village was burned. A new village was built nearby after the war but French president Charles de Gaulle ordered the original maintained as a permanent memorial and museum.

The following, from Wikipedia, accounts the events that took place here on that fateful day.

In February 1944, the 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich" was stationed in the French town of Valence-d'Agen north of Toulouse. Following the D-Day invasion in June 1944, the division was ordered north to help stop the Allied advance. One of its units was the 4th SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment. Its staff included SS-Sturmbannführer Adolf Diekmann commanding the 1st Battalion.

Early on the morning of 10 June, 1944, Diekmann informed another officer that he had been approached by two members of the Milice, a collaborator paramilitary force of the Vichy Regime. They claimed that a Waffen-SS officer, Helmut Kampfe was being held prisoner by the Resistance in Oradour-sur-Vayres, a nearby village. It is thought the officer may have been captured by the Maquis du Limousin the day before. Diekmann was ordered to have the mayor choose thirty people to be hostages in exchange for Kämpfe.

On 10 June, Diekmann's battalion sealed off Oradour-sur-Glane and ordered everyone within to assemble in the village square to have their Identity papers examined. This included six non-residents who happened to be bicycling through the town when the SS unit arrived. The women and children were locked in the church and the village was looted. The men were led to six barns and sheds, where machine guns were already in place. According to a survivor's account, the SS men then began shooting, aiming for their legs. When victims were unable to move, the SS men covered them with fuel and set the barns on fire. Only six men managed to escape. One of them was later seen walking down a road and was shot dead. In all, 190 French men died.

The SS men next proceeded to the church and placed an incendiary device beside it. When it was ignited, women and children tried to escape through the doors and windows, only to be met with machine-gun fire. 247 women and 205 children died in the brutal attack. The only survivor was 47-year-old Marguerite Rouffanche. She escaped through a rear sacristy window, followed by a young woman and child. All three were shot, two of them fatally. Rouffanche crawled to some bushes and remained hidden overnight until she was found and rescued the next morning. About twenty villagers had fled as soon as the SS unit had appeared. That night, the village was partially razed.

Several days later, the survivors were allowed to bury the 642 dead inhabitants of Oradour-sur-Glane who had been killed in just a few hours. Adolf Diekmann said the atrocity was in retaliation for the partisan activity in nearby Tulle and the kidnapping of the SS commander,

It is still unclear why the village was targetted. There are several theories. One was that the village was confused with the other Oradour said to be holding the German officer. Another is that the village was hiding a large stash of gold. and the third has something to do with a story members of the resistance were hiding there. The truth may never be known.

Today, the village, which is free to visit, remains much the same as it was over 70 years ago. You are able to wander the streets and see the burnt out homes, shops, garages and church. Many of them have signs designating what they were and in them you can see items that didn't burn such as sewing machines, stoves, cars and other things made of metal. It is a chilling experience to visit this place.