Memorial Oradour-sur-Glane

In Oradour-sur-Glane, a village of more than six hundred inhabitants, it was relatively quiet during the Second World War. Occasionally a German soldier was spotted, but there was little violence until June 10, 1944.

Two days earlier, the French resistance blew up a railway bridge near the village. Two Germans were killed, including Helmut Kämpfe, an important SS man and a personal friend of Sturmbähnfuhrer Diekmann. After blowing up the railway bridge, 28 French prisoners were already executed, but Diekmann wanted more.
After noon on June 10, his soldiers surrounded the village and blocked all exits. No one could get in or out, but there was little panic.
Soldiers told residents it was a routine identity check.
As the nearly 650 attendees gathered in the town square, men and women were separated. The men had to group in barns, women and children had to go to church. Not much later, around four o'clock in the afternoon, the barns were riddled with bullets. A fire was set in the church and choking smoke spread. Most residents were burned alive, and those who tried to flee were met by soldiers and shot dead. Only 6 residents survived this massacre.
After the massacre, the rest of the village was also set on fire.

Shortly after the war, Oradour-sur-Glane was visited by French President Charles de Gaulle. The village had to be preserved as a monument and reminder of the horrors of the war.
Oradour is still exactly as the Nazis left it on that Black Saturday.
Signs on the facades show which building had which function. Several houses, a bakery, a clothing workshop where the sewing machines are still in place, a hairdresser's shop and a garage full of burnt-out cars are the silent witnesses to these atrocities.

In the martyrs' village in the ruins of the former Saint-Martin church there is still a memorial plaque with the names of the victims of the First World War.