Oradour-Sur-Glane, France - June 1, 2008
In 1944, in the elevated turmoil following the June 6th Allied D-Day landings in Normandy, French Resistance fighters stepped up their efforts to disrupt German forces and hinder their communications. The German 2nd SS Panzer Division, that had been ordered to make its way across country to join the fighting in Normandy, was one such force that fell prey to an attack by the Resistance. On June 10, 1944, Sturmbannführer Adolf Diekmann of the 4th Waffen-SS Panzers informed his commanding officer of a collaborator claim, concerning a 2nd SS Panzer Division officer being held by the Resistance in the village of Oradour-sur-Vayres. Diekmann was authorized to arrest the Mayor of the village and select 30 other citizens for a hostage swap to free the captured German. 
Later that same day, Diekmann's battalion mistakenly sealed off the town of Oradour-sur-Glane, having confused it with nearby Oradour-sur-Vayres, and ordered the occupants to assemble in the village square, to have their identity documents examined. The women and children were immediately moved to the church and locked inside while the men were taken to a series of barns and slaughtered by machine guns aimed at their legs, with the express intention of prolonging their deaths. The soldiers burned barns and the corpses and just five of the 195 men survived this carnage. The Germans next set fire to the church and then stood guard with machine guns, shooting would-be escapees as they attempted to exit the building. 247 women and 205 children died in this chapter of the massacre with just one woman surviving. At this point, the over-zealous Diekmann looted the houses
and then razed the village. When the dead were buried a few days later, it was sadly confirmed that 642 inhabitants of Oradour-sur-Glane had been brutally murdered in just a few hours. Diekmann himself was killed in action some days later, by which time the Nazi authorities were preparing to prosecute him. After the war, General Charles de Gaulle decreed that the old village would not be rebuilt but would be dedicated as a memorial to the vile excesses of the Nazi 
occupation. A new village was built on a nearby site and Oradour-sur-Glane, with a population just over 2000, is now a commune of the Haute-Vienne département. In 1999, French President Jacques Chirac formally opened the Oradour-sur-Glane Centre de la Mémoire. Slideshow here.
In 1944, in the elevated turmoil following the June 6th Allied D-Day landings in Normandy, French Resistance fighters stepped up their efforts to disrupt German forces and hinder their communications. The German 2nd SS Panzer Division, that had been ordered to make its way across country to join the fighting in Normandy, was one such force that fell prey to an attack by the Resistance. On June 10, 1944, Sturmbannführer Adolf Diekmann of the 4th Waffen-SS Panzers informed his commanding officer of a collaborator claim, concerning a 2nd SS Panzer Division officer being held by the Resistance in the village of Oradour-sur-Vayres. Diekmann was authorized to arrest the Mayor of the village and select 30 other citizens for a hostage swap to free the captured German. 
Later that same day, Diekmann's battalion mistakenly sealed off the town of Oradour-sur-Glane, having confused it with nearby Oradour-sur-Vayres, and ordered the occupants to assemble in the village square, to have their identity documents examined. The women and children were immediately moved to the church and locked inside while the men were taken to a series of barns and slaughtered by machine guns aimed at their legs, with the express intention of prolonging their deaths. The soldiers burned barns and the corpses and just five of the 195 men survived this carnage. The Germans next set fire to the church and then stood guard with machine guns, shooting would-be escapees as they attempted to exit the building. 247 women and 205 children died in this chapter of the massacre with just one woman surviving. At this point, the over-zealous Diekmann looted the houses
and then razed the village. When the dead were buried a few days later, it was sadly confirmed that 642 inhabitants of Oradour-sur-Glane had been brutally murdered in just a few hours. Diekmann himself was killed in action some days later, by which time the Nazi authorities were preparing to prosecute him. After the war, General Charles de Gaulle decreed that the old village would not be rebuilt but would be dedicated as a memorial to the vile excesses of the Nazi 
occupation. A new village was built on a nearby site and Oradour-sur-Glane, with a population just over 2000, is now a commune of the Haute-Vienne département. In 1999, French President Jacques Chirac formally opened the Oradour-sur-Glane Centre de la Mémoire. Slideshow here.
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