Four days after D-Day (June 10, 1944), one of the worst atrocities of WWII occurred in the village of Oradour-sur-Glane in France. It occurred the day after German soldiers had executed 99 French civilians in Tulle. The men were hanged on balconies and lampposts. This was revenge for successful Resistance activities in the area. The German officer in command, Helmut Kampfe, was subsequently captured by the Maquis while traveling in an ambulance. He was assassinated by the French underground members.
When Adolf Diekmann, commander of a battalion of the SS Das Reich division, learned that Kampfe was being held in Oradour, his unit sealed off the village. The Das Reich division had been transferred to France after it had served on the Eastern Front. The division had a reputation for dealing harshly with Russian partisans by killing civilians and burning villages. The Oradour men were gathered in barns and sheds. This included six non-residents who were bicycling through the village. German machine guns opened fire, aiming at the legs of the men. Then they were doused with gasoline and the buildings were set on fire. Only nine men were able to escape. 190 were killed.
The women and children were forced into the church, which was then set on fire. Anyone trying to climb out of windows was shot. Only one woman, 47-year-old Marguerite Rouffanche, was able to escape. Although shot five times, she hid in some bushes. She lost her husband, her son, her two daughters and her seven-month-old grandson. 247 woman and 205 children died. A total of 643 French civilians died in the incident. The village was looted and most of it was burned to the ground.
After the war, the French government decided not to rebuild the village. It remains the way it ended up on June 10, 1944. It is a memorial of one of the worst war crimes of the war. You can visit it and see exactly what the village looked on June 11. Most of the German soldiers, including Diekmann, were killed in the fighting in Normandy. In 1953, 21 participants in the massacre were put on trial in France. “ Of the twenty-one, fourteen were Frenchmen from Alsace-Lorraine who had been conscripted into the SS, thirteen by force. One German was sentenced to death, four to sentences of forced labor, and one was acquitted. Of the Alsatians, only the volunteer was condemned to death, nine to forced labor, and five to jail terms. Forced labour and prison sentences ranged from five to twelve years.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oradour-sur-Glane_massacre
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/oradour-sur-glane-martyred-village
https://academic.oup.com/book/26719/chapter/195546145
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