Oradour-Sur-Glane

Oradour-sur-Glane. You may never have heard of it, but after 81 years there are still important lessons we need to learn from the event here on June 10, 1944. Where is it? What happened here? Why did it happen, and who was responsible?

Oradour-sur-Glane was a peaceful and prosperous village, with a population of about 650, located 15 miles north of Limoges in central France . Before the war it was a popular destination for picnicking, fishing, and a short getaway. 

On June 10, 1944, the 2nd SS Panzer Division, Das Reich, surrounded Oradour and under the pretense of an identity check, ordered all residents to gather in one place, including visitors and refugees from another district who had recently moved there. Even all of the school children with their teachers were marched in. Machine guns surrounded them.

The men were separated into groups then herded into barns and sheds. The SS first shot at their legs, then covered the wounded with fuel and set the structures on fire.

The women and children were locked in the village church, which the SS then set on fire by  throwing in grenades. Those who tried to escape through the windows were machine-gunned.

And then the SS destroyed the entire village. 

Why? Very simply, it was a reprisal act against the French Resistance in general and specifically the kidnapping and execution of an SS officer by the Resistance. Apparently there never was any Resistance activity in Oradour, but that fact and its remote location made it an easy target for a collective punishment to frighten the other towns  and villages into submission. 

It’s easy to just blame this barbarism on the Waffen SS or on the Nazis, but in fact mass murder was routinely committed by ordinary men and women, and had become socially accepted because of the fascist regimes. 

Fascism is a term that we hear a lot these days. What is it exactly? According to the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, “fascism is a political system marked by a powerful leader, total state control of the economy and society, extreme pride in one's country and race, and the outright suppression of any political opposition or disagreement. It is a form of right-wing extremism and an authoritarian government with a dictatorial leader, where all aspects of society are controlled by the state. “

Here are some of the pictures we took this morning in Oradour. Like my pictures of Auschwitz, I have lots more if anyone wants to see them.