The Ruins of Oradour-sur-Glane, Oradour-sur-Glane, France (B)

Oradour-sur-Glane is a village in the Haute-Vienne department of the Limousin region of France. The new Oradour-sur-Glane was rebuilt after World War II next to the original village which was destroyed by a German Waffen-SS company.

The story of the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre is simply atrocious. After the D-Day invasion, German troops that were stationed near Toulouse in southern France were ordered north to help stop the Allied advance. One of the commanding officers, Diekmann, learned from the Milice (a paramilitary force of the Vichy Regime) that a Waffen-SS officer had been captured by the Resistance.

In retaliation, Diekmann’s battalion sealed off Oradour-sur-Glane and rounded up all its residents. The women and children were locked in the church while the men were led to six different barns. The SS troops shot all the men in the legs so they couldn’t move and then set the barns on fire. Then they set the church on fire.

After looting the town, the Germans set all of Oradour-sur-Glane on fire. Of 649 civilians, only six men and one woman escaped the massacre. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).