In Oradour-sur-Glane in the French Limousin, 247 women and 200 children died as a result of a brutal German reprisal.
Shortly before the Allied D-Day landings at Normandy Adolph Diekmann commanding the battalion of the 4th Waffen-SS, (Panzer-Grenadier Regiment) completely isolated the town of Oradour-sur-Glane on June 10 1944. He ordered everyone to assemble in the town square, supposedly to have their identity papers examined. All the women and children were then taken to the church where they were detained while the locale was looted. The men were led to six barns and sheds where machine-guns were already in place. According to the account of a survivor, the soldiers began shooting, aiming for their legs so that they would die more slowly. Once the victims were no longer able to move, the soldiers set the barns on fire killing 190 men. The soldiers then proceeded to the church and set in on fire, as the women and children tried to flee they were mown down by machine-gun fire. 247 women and about 200 children died. A few days later, survivors were allowed to bury their dead only after 642 inhabitants of Oradour-sur-Glane had been murdered in a matter of hours.
Size: 5200px × 3249px
Location: Oradour-sur-Glane, Limousin, France
Photo credit: © John Heseltine / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1944, atrocity, center, central, centre, collaboration, devastation, diekman, force, france, française, french, german, germans, glane, haute-vienne, invasion, limousin, martyr, martyred, massacre, modern, occupation, oradour, oradour-sur-glane, paramilitary, resistance, rochechouart, ruins, ss, sturmbannführer, vichy, village, waffen, waffen-ss, ésistance, ührer
