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Oradour-sur-Glane was a village in the Limousin région of France that came under direct German control in 1942. Its name has become infamous because of its destruction in 1944 when 642 of its inhabitants — men, women, and children — were slaughtered by the German Waffen-SS.
Events
As an Allied attack on Europe loomed, the local French Resistance increased its activities in order to occupy the German forces and hinder communications.
2nd SS Panzer Division 'Das Reich' was ordered to make its way across country to the fighting in Normandy. Along the way it came under constant attack and sabotage from the French Resistance. Allegedly, SS soldiers were further angered by finding atrocities committed by some resistance; in particular, a German ambulance in which all the wounded had been killed and the driver and assistants tied to the cab before the vehicle was set on fire. No record of this alleged incident exists in German records.
Early on the morning of June 10 Sturmbannführer Otto Diekmann reported to Sturmbannführer Otto Weidinger that he had been approached by two French civilians who claimed that a high German official was being held by the French Resistance guerrilla, the maquis, in Oradour. That day he was to be executed and publicly burnt amidst celebrations. The two French civilians also stated that the whole population was working with the maquis and that high ranking leaders were there at the moment. At about the same time the SD in Limoges reported that their local informers had reported a maquis headquarters in Oradour. The high German official was belived to be Sturmbannfuhrer Helmut Kampfe, a personal friend of both Diekmann and Weidinger who had been captured by the maquis the day before. Kampfe was never found and is listed in SS records as "Missing in southern France in action against terrorists".
On June 10 the 1st battalion of the Waffen-SS (Der Führer) regiment, led by Sturmbannführer Otto Dickmann, encircled the town of Oradour-sur-Glane and ordered all the inhabitants to congregate in a public fairground near the village centre, ostensibly to examine people's papers. All the women and children were taken to the church, while the village was looted. Meanwhile, the men were taken to six barns 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; 197 died there.
Having finished with the men, the soldiers then entered the church and put an incendiary device in place. After it was ignited, the surviving women and children tried to flee from the doors and windows but were met with machine gun fire. Only one woman survived; another 240 women and 205 children died in the mayhem. Another small group of about twenty villagers had fled Oradour as soon as the soldiers appeared. That night the remainder of the village was razed. A few days later the survivors were allowed to bury the dead.
German practices of repression
The Germans regarded members of resistance movements as terrorists. They found it difficult to deal with a "faceless", ununiformed enemy, which would not hesitate to attack unarmed German occupation staff (who were easier targets), striking without warning and subsequently vanishing by blending into a civilian crowd. Although less brutal in scope than what occurred on the Eastern Front, the reprisal at Oradour was part of a deliberate German policy intended to break all resistance. Despite such massacres and the death of thousands of innocent lives at the hands of the Germans, resistance movements in various parts of France continued until the end of the war.
Oradour was not the single such collective punishment reprisal action committed by German troops — other well-documented examples include the Soviet village of Kortelisy (in what is now Ukraine), the Czechoslovakian village of Lidice (in what is now the Czech Republic), the Dutch village of Putten and the Italian villages of Sant'Anna di Stazzema and Marzabotto. Furthermore, the German troops executed hostages (random or selected in suspect groups) anywhere in France to deter Resistance fighters from attacking; resistants would hesitate to risk the lives of other individuals in addition to their own.
Post-war outcomes
On January 12, 1953, a trial began against the surviving 65 of the about 200 soldiers before a military tribunal in Bordeaux. Only 21 of them were present (many living in Germany would not be extradited). Among them were 7 Germans, the 14 others were Alsatians, i.e. French nationals who were members of the SS Division "Reich". All but one of them claimed to have been drafted into the Waffen-SS against their will (the so-called malgré-nous). The SS records do not show that any such drafting took place. It is most likely that the Alsatians were Nazi sympathisers and volunteered.
This caused huge protest in Alsace, forcing the French authorities to split the process in two separate ones according to the nationality of the defendants. On February 11 20 defendants were found guilty. Continuing uproar (including calls for autonomy) in Alsace pressed the French parliament to pass an amnesty law for all malgré-nous on February 19, and the convicted Alsatians were released shortly afterwards. This in turn caused bitter protest in the Limousin region.
By 1958 all the German defendants had been released as well. General Karl-Heinz Lammerding of the Das Reich division, who had given the orders for the measures against the Resistance, died in 1971 after a successful entrepreneurial career, never having been indicted.
The last trial against a former Waffen-SS member took place in 1983. Shortly before, in the GDR the former SS-Obersturmführer Heinz Barth had been tracked down. Barth participated in the Oradour massacre as a platoon leader in the regiment "Der Führer", commanding 45 soldiers. He was amongst other war crimes charged with having given orders to shoot 20 men in a garage. Barth was sentenced to life imprisonment by the 1st senate of the city court Berlin. He was released from prison in the re-unified Germany in 1997.
After the war, General Charles de Gaulle decided that the village would never be rebuilt. Instead, it would remain as a memorial to the cruelty of Nazi occupation. In 1999, President Jacques Chirac dedicated a visitors' centre, the centre de la mémoire, in Oradour-sur-Glane and named the site a Village Martyr.
The tragic story of Oradour was featured in 1974 in the acclaimed British documentary television series, The World at War, which was narrated by Sir Laurence Olivier. The final episode # 26, entitled "Remember," shows helicopter views of the destroyed village, interspersed with pictures of the victims that appear on their graves. Somber music of Haydn's St. Nicholas Mass is used during this poignant sequence in the documentary. It also shows the sign in Oradour that reads "Remember" and uses this atrocity as a symbol of all the suffering of the entire war.
Today
Oradour-sur-Glane is now a commune of the Haute-Vienne département. Population 2,025. The new village was built after WWII, away from the ruins of the former village.
(This commemorative stamp was published by the GDR.)
See also
External links
- Study of 1944 reprisals at Oradour-sur-Glane
- Oradour-sur-Glane Memorial Center
- "Souvenir" - a movie based on the events at Oradour-sur-Glane
- Le Vieux Fusil - another movie based on these events
- Encyclopedia Britannica entry on Oradour-sur-Glane
- Account containing witness testimony
Communes of Haute-Vienne | World War II crimes
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"Oradour-sur-Glane"