It’s hard to put into words the feelings you get standing in the centre of the village of Oradour-sur-Glane in west central France.
Surrounded by ruined buildings, there’s an almost haunting, shock feeling as you let your mind imagine the full horrors of war on the men, women, and children - 643 of them – who were murdered here by German forces on Saturday June 10, 1944.
Consumed by fire to hide their crimes, over 80 years later the village remains as it did that fateful day.
As you walk through the streets today you see the church, houses, farm buildings, the garage, village store, doctor’s surgery, schools, plus children’s bicycles, women’s sewing machines, cars, and the tramway. Attached to every brick, cobble, building, and personal belonging which remains is a connection to the remarkable lives and stories of the villagers.
It’s difficult not to feel an instant connection to every single one of those who were lost here, and a gut-wrenching feeling of horror at what humans are capable of doing to each other.

Around 2pm on June 10 – just four days after the Allied landings in Normandy – troops from the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich led by Adolf Diekmann arrived on the southern outskirts of this small, rural village as they made their way north from near Toulouse to help push back the Allied advances.

A staff car was first to arrive, followed by an armoured car and then truckloads of soldiers. The soldiers began to round up everyone in the village, including those visiting, assembling them at the village green.
The women and children were separated and taken to the church, the men split into small groups and taken to three barns, two garages, a warehouse, and a hangar.

At 4pm an explosion in the village signalled the start of the massacre at each site, German soldiers firing their machine guns into the captive crowds. Then, the bodies were covered with straw and wood and set alight. Those who weren’t rounded up were killed in their homes, with the exception of around 20 villagers who had fled before the start of the atrocities.
Remarkably, six people escaped the massacre – Madame Marguerite Rouffanche climbing through a small window in the church to escape. She was shot, but hid in a vegetable garden until the Germans had left.
After looting the village, the Germans left at daybreak the following day but not before setting fire to the rest of the buildings.
Around 2.30pm on Sunday June 11 the first of the people from surrounding areas arrived, witnessing the atrocities and beginning the long, painful task of identifying the bodies. A small number of Germans also returned to Oradour on Monday morning – June 12 – in an attempt to cover up their crime, digging large pits to bury the charred remains of the villagers.

So why Oradour? It was claimed the massacre was in retaliation to resistance activities in the area. It’s also believed that Oradour-sur-Glane was the victim of mistaken identity with the village of Oradour-sur-Vayres – over 35km to the south west - the intended target.
It was at Oradour-sur-Vayres where the Germans believed German SS officer Helmut Kampfe - a personal friend of Diekmann - was being held and tortured by Maquis resistance fighters.

Today, Oradour-sur-Glane remains in the same state as it was left in 1944 and was ordered by President Charles de Gaulle to never be rebuilt so it would remain a permanent memorial to the 643 victims.
It’s fitting that Diekmann rests in an unremarkable grave in a relatively unvisited corner of the La Cambe cemetery after being killed in Normandy, while the village of Oradour receives hundreds of thousands of respect-paying visitors each year, ensuring its memory lives on forever.

Visiting leaves you with a strong feeling of respect, remembrance, and togetherness of the French people who once lived here and those who now live in the new village nearby and continue to honour Oradour’s memory through the upkeep of the site today.