A rusting car at Oradour-sur-Glane, the martyr village in Limousin, France where a 1944 wartime atrocity took place
Oradour-sur-Glane was a village in the Limousin région of France that was destroyed on 10 June 1944, when 642 of its inhabitants — men, women and children — were murdered by a German Waffen-SS company. As an Allied attack on Europe loomed, the local French Resistance increased its activities in order to disrupt local German forces and hinder communications. 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich was ordered to make its way across the country to the fighting in Normandy. Along the way it killed many French citizens and, in turn, came under attack and sabotage from the French Resistance. On June 10 Diekmann's battalion sealed off the town of Oradour-sur-Glane, having confused it with nearby Oradour-sur-Vayres, and ordered all the townspeople – and anyone who happened to be in or nearby the town – to assemble in the village square, ostensibly to have their papers examined. All the women and children were then taken to and locked in the church while the village itself was looted. Meanwhile, the men were led to six barns and sheds where machine-gun nests were already in place. According to the account of a survivor, the soldiers began shooting at them, aiming for their legs so that they would die more slowly. Once the victims were no longer able to move, the soldiers covered their bodies with kindling and set the barns on fire. Only five men escaped; 190 men died. The soldiers then proceeded to the church and put an incendiary device in place there. After it was ignited, women and children tried to flee from the doors and windows of the church but were met with machine-gun fire. 247 women and 205 children died in the mayhem. Only one woman survived, 47-year-old local housewife Marguerite Rouffanche. She had managed to slide out of a small window at the back of the church, and hid in the bushes overnight until the Germans had moved on.
Size: 5200px × 3467px
Location: Oradour-sur-Glane is a commune of the Haute-Vienne département in France
Photo credit: © Tony Kwan / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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