srettig24 Hauntingly Beautiful
When I was in the Southwest of France I had the opportunity to see the memorial of Oradour-Sur-Glane. This was a powerful experience that I am glad I was able to take in.
A Symbol of Bravery and Suffering
Days after D-Day on June 10, 1944 Troops of the 2nd Waffen-SS Panzer Division massacred the residents of the small farming village Oradour-Sur-Glane. The German SS killed 642 people.
The SS came into the town and rounded up all the people and asked the mayor to give up the resistance fighters. When they denied that there were people who resided there in there in the resistance movement the SS separated them by gender. They shot 197 men and boys to several barns and took 240 women and 205 kids to the church. The soliders threw grenades at all the barns and the church and shot anyone who tried to escape. Then burned down every house and building in the town. After the end of the war in 1946, the French government declared it a sight of national memorial.
There is more extensive details on the SS, what happened after, the stories of the victims you can find here.
Photo Gallery
Please take a chance to look at the pictures below. I know in today’s world it can be hard to not just mindlessly swipe along. This village has been left the way it was since the residences were killed so that the world would know what happened to the people here. It’s hard to comprehend something like this. It’s harder to comprehend that… this is happening to people in the world now. There is no world peace. People are still the victims of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Scale of the Horror
Even in the state of decay, burnt, abandoned you can see how beautiful this town must have been. I was not expecting it to be so big. Yes, it is still a village but it was not just a few buildings that the Nazis destroyed but a village with auto shops, cafes, and family homes. I never had a concept of what the phrase “time stood still” really meant. This is the best way I can explain it. It was also clear that the people in this village were well off. This was not an impoverished village. There are many cars, bikes, sewing machines, cafés large multiple story homes.
Clear Details
Part of the experience was trying to and failing to understand the horror of what happened. The second part of the experience for me getting the most clear picture of what life looked like and seemed like in the 1940s as I will ever be able to. I was blow away by now modern and sophisticated how in many ways similar our lives are now as they were to my those who lived in the 1940s. These small details connected my life in some ways to theirs, and only made the horrors that they experienced more real to me.
Oradour-sur-Glan remembers the crimes that occurred during my great-grandparent’s generation. How much has really changed since then?
The Cemetery
The cemetery has memorial stones for all of the victims, many of them with photographs. Here you could see the faces of most of them women and children. At the end of the cemetery is a tall commemorative stone. Under it is a two glass boxes with the only human remains (teeth or shards of bones) they could find of the bodies that were burned in the church.
G- Thanks for taking me here it was an emotional experience I will always remember