A few days after returning from Normandy, we took another side trip to Oradour-sur-Glane. We would’t have known about the place had we not seen a Facebook post from our friend Tim Martini who has a TV show called “Exploring the Obscure” – a documentary about the existence and history of some of the worlds most unusual places. To link to his show, goto:  https://youtu.be/LyEpaiVULds

Oradour-sur-Glane is most definitely an unusual and sinister place. Following the D-Day invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944 a division of the Nazi regime called the Waffen-SS Company that occupied South and Central France was ordered North to help stop the Allied advance. On June 10th, 1944 a battalion of Nazis sealed off the village of Oradour-sur-Glane and ordered all of the inhabitants to assemble in the village square to have their identity papers examined. As the village was in a peace zone, no one anticipated the ensuing massacre. The women and children were locked in the church thinking that they might be spared as the village was looted and the men were led into barns and sheds where they were either doused with fuel and burned alive or executed by machine gun fire.

The Nazi’s then went to the church and ignited an incendiary device and, as the women and children tried to escape, they were also killed by machine gun fire.  As we toured the church, there was a rusted baby carriage lying on the floor near the alter and you could see evidence of damage to the stone walls and confessional from the machine gun fire – another sobering moment.

In total, 190 men, 247 women, and 205 children were killed in the surprise ambush that day and the many parts of the village were razed immediately following the attack. Only 5 men and one woman managed to escape.

Following the end of the war, the French president Charles de Gaulle, arranged for a new “replica” village to be created adjacent to the partially razed village and ordered that the razed village be preserved “as-was” as a permanent memorial and museum. The small town cemetery remains with 642 grave markers all indicating June 10, 1944 as date of death.