Burnt-out cars are still visible in the ghost town of Oradour-sur-Glane. Picture: oradour.info
THE horror came without warning and lasted just hours. By the time it was over, more than 640 people were dead and a small French village four hours southwest of Paris lay in flames.
It was a typical Saturday in Oradour-sur-Glane when soldiers from the German 2nd SS Panzer Division arrived outside the village on June 10, 1944. Days earlier, Allied troops had landed on the beaches of Normandy four hours to the north in a massive invasion that was a major turning point in World War II.
For reasons still unclear more than 70 years later, the soldiers surrounded the village, marched the women and children into a church and forced the men into garages and barns. The men were shot. The woman and children suffocated or were burned to death when the church was set aflame. In all, 642 people died, including 247 children. Only six survived to tell the tale of the largest Nazi massacre of civilians ever committed on French soil.
Ruins line the streets. Picture: oradour.infoSource:Supplied
A ‘UNIQUE PLACE IN THE WORLD’
Today, more than seven decades after the bloodshed, Oradour-sur-Glane remains a ghost town: a historically preserved time-capsule where torched homes, burnt cars and charred sewing machines remain in the same spot where they were left on June 10, 1944.
“It is a unique place in the world,” said Richard Jezierski, director of the village’s Centre de la Mémoire, which exhibits many of the artefacts from that fateful day, including watches that stopped at the exact moment their owners died. Designed as a place of reflection and remembrance, the centre is also the repository for poignant videotaped narratives of survivors’ memories and the soul-chilling confessions of executioners.
Amid the 16 hectares of historic buildings, visitors can see the melted green metal bells inside the burnt-out church where bullet holes fill the walls and religious statues still stand, their faces obliterated by the flames. Plaques mark the spots where residents lived or were murdered, or the crypt where many are now buried. On one street corner, a cafe with a single table still stands as if awaiting ghostly guests. Amid the rubble, mounds of rusting cars overgrown by grass and flowers still sit along the street, awaiting their owners’ return.
Oradour-sur-Glane’s place in history was secured shortly after the end of World War II when it was decided that the ruins should forever remain a memorial to the innocents who lost their lives at the hands of the Nazis. Today, about 300,000 visitors annually pass through its wrought iron gates.
Robert Hébras is one of them.
Laudy barn, where men escaped the Nazis. Picture: oradour.infoSource:Supplied
A SURVIVOR’S STORY
Now 89-years-old, Hébras still remembers the roar of the German trucks as they surrounded the village that day and the sight of uniformed Nazis machinegunning down a group of men held captive in a village barn. The sounds and sights of that day remain as fresh in his mind as if it were yesterday.
“It was all done in a very calm and orderly fashion,” he said of the killings, recalling how he escaped the carnage by playing dead under the bloodied bodies of his neighbours. As the Nazis doused the dead and wounded with gasoline and set the barn on fire, the 19-year-old Hébras managed to crawl out the back of the building and hide in nearby woods. It took hours before he found his way to the home of a relative only to later learn that he was among the few survivors of the massacre. His mother and two sisters died in the bloodbath. His father, who was working on a farm outside the village, and a sister who was living elsewhere, survived.
Others managed to save themselves by fleeing when the Germans first arrived. One 47-year-old woman, the sole survivor to escape the burning church, pulled herself to safety through a window behind the altar only to be hit by gunfire as she fled. She finally managed to find her way to a neighbour’s garden where she hid amid the peas until being rescued the next day.
The ravaged local church. Picture: oradour.infoSource:Supplied
THE MYSTERY BEHIND THE ATTACK
In an ironic twist of fate, most of the 200 SS soldiers believed to have participated in the rampage that day died within months as well, all killed in battle. Of the few who survived the battlefield, only 20 were ever found guilty. All were released from prison within five years.
Despite their convictions — and all the documents, interviews and confessions gathered about Oradour-sur-Glane in the 70 years since the bloodbath — the reason for the Nazi massacre remains unclear. One historical account states that the massacre was in retaliation for the murder of a German officer killed by the French Resistance. Another claims the Nazis were looking for a kidnapped military official when they herded villagers to the fairgrounds and told them the soldiers were there to search for weapons and other contraband. Still another theory states that the Germans came to recover some stolen gold seized by French rebels just days before. Or they could have mistaken the village for another town nearby. Whatever the reason for the soldiers’ appearance, there is little to explain why they turned on the villagers so ruthlessly and without provocation.
Visitors are asked to keep a reverent silence. Picture: oradour.infoSource:Supplied
A FUTURE THREAT
While a poignant reminder of Nazi atrocities, the village today is facing one of its greatest threats since those war crimes were committed more than 70 years earlier. Eroded by time and weather, the once bustling rural community of Oradour-sur-Glane is slowly crumbling. Those who long-fought to save the village as a historic monument to the past, now wonder if they can save it for the future.
Oradour-sur-Glane is a memorial to the atrocities of war. Picture: oradour.infoSource:Supplied
INFORMATION FOR TRAVELLERS
Oradour-sur-Glane is in the Haute-Vienne region of France about 24km west of Limoges, known for its porcelain and enamels. Getting there means either renting a car or taking the train to Limoges and then boarding either a bus or taxi to the village. If driving, follow the brown tourist signs for Oradour-sur-Glane which appear on the A20 Autoroute just north of Limoges.
The visitor centre for the ruins, the Centre de la Mémoire, is on the left as you enter the new village, which is located next to the historic area known as the “martyred village”. The centre is open daily but visitors should check the centre’s website for exact times since they change depending on the season. Admission is €7.80 for adults and €5.20 for children, veterans and the disabled. Children under 10 are free. The centre also host numerous other exhibitions and lectures.
If you are planning an overnight stay, there are several hotels and restaurants in the new section of Oradour and several more outside the village. Motorhome and tent sites are also located nearby. For more information on where to stay, click here.
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