Visit Oradour-Sur-Glane by Mouse
It once was a village 14 miles northwest of
Limoges in
the Department of
Dordogne in the southwest of France, but now it is a memorial museum. The whole village. Where
no one lives anymore.
And that is because "On June 10, 1944, four days after the Allied landings in Normandy, 120 soldiers
of the Waffen-SS tank division ‘das Reich’ entered the market village of Oradour-sur-Glane near Limoges in Central France. They rounded
up the population in the market-place. The men were herded into a barn, shot and set on fire. The women and children were crowded
into the church where they were showered with bullets and also burnt. The SS then pillaged shops and houses and set light to numerous
other buildings. Overall, 642 people (including 205 children) were massacred. Only 8 of those present escaped." --Simon Kitson
on the web site "
Vichy Web"
After the war the French Government decided not to rebuild the village but to keep it as much as
possible as it was left on that day and to declare it a national monument. A small museum that provides details of the
story is now on the edge of the village. We were told about the village by a British person who had been there.
We visited on our 2005 trip.
The
photos Ron took will show you what remains of what was a functioning village with
a butcher, a baker, a hairdresser, a garage, and all the rest of what you would expect to find in a French village of the period. And
the
letter we wrote after our visit will tell you more about what we saw and experienced.
