The Massacre of Oradour-sur Glane 5/12/2024

 Normally when I sit down to write about our day's events,  they come naturally.  Today I am at a loss on the proper way to chronicle today's activity.  We left Sarlat and drove to Amboise.  A four hour drive.  We arrived in Amboise around 6:30 PM. An uneventful trip in one way, but it turned out to be a walk through the dark history of France.

We stopped in Limoges for lunch and drove to Oradour-sur-Glane (Oradour on the Glane River).  This was a planned stop.  The village of Oradour was changed forever on June 10, 1944.  Oradour was a charming French village.  It was a Limousin market town.  The census of 1936 showed a population of 1574 inhabitants, 330 of whom lived close to each other in the main part of the village.  This village was just like any other village you have been to, worldwide.  The residents were hard working, family oriented, and just wanted to live their life.  Prior to June 10, 1944 the population had increased due to the influx of refugees from other areas.  The people of Oradour took them in.

On June 6, 1944 the D Day invasion was launched in Normandy. There was a German SS headquarters in nearby Limoges and news of the invasion put their administration in a state of disarray.  They were mobilizing their troops for immediate departure to go to Normandy and at the same time wanted to send a strong message to the population of the local community. 

The German SS wanted to erase Oradour from the map of France.  On the 10th of June, this village became the site of a tragedy, the horror which was unparallelled in the anals of the war.

It started at 2:00 PM on June 10, the Germans arrived in Oradour. Ten lorries (trucks) came into the village, the Germans disembarked, and summoned all the residents to the village green.  They came willingly.  There had never been a problem from the villagers and the occupiers.  This was not to be the case. The SS called everyone to the meeting.  Men, women, childern, the elderly, no exceptions.  They divided everyone,  women and children on one side and men on the other.  The women and children were sent to the church and the men went to 6 other locations in the village.  Once the separations were made, the ordeal began.

At 4:00 PM an explosion was heard and at this signal the SS began machine gunning the men,  they then began setting fire to the bodies.  At 5:00, the women, alarmed by the gunfire, rushed the doors of the church.  The SS was waiting,  Machine gun fire forced them back into the church.  They set fire to the church.  There were almost 500 women and children in the church.. They all perished, except one lady, Mme Rouffanche.  She had been shot 5 times.  Beside the church, there were 5 other massacre sites and bodies were also found in three more locations. The SS then set fire to the whole village. 642 people lost their lives and 328 structures were destroyed. 

 Mme Rouffanche lost her husband, her son, her two daughters, and her grandson.  She survived the war and testified at the trial in 1953.  She continued to live in the Oradour (the new town), until she passed away in 1988.

The ruins of this village stands today as a memorial to the barbarity of war. Today it is known as "the Village of Martyres.

It is an emotional experience to visit the memorial and I cannot adequately write about what we experienced today.  The pictures will give you a small glimpse into what we saw.

Memorial Entrance