Oradour-sur-Glane

Oradour-sur-Glane (French pronunciation: [ɔʁaduʁ syʁ ɡlan]; Occitan: Orador de Glana) is a commune in the Haute-Vienne department, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, west central France, as well as the name of the main village within the commune.

The original village of Oradour-sur-Glane is widely known for having been destroyed and its inhabitants massacred by Nazi Germany in World War II—and subsequently left in its destroyed state as a memorial.

History

Before World War II, Oradour-sur-Glane was a quiet, rural community. The original village was destroyed on 10 June 1944, four days after D-Day, when 643 of its inhabitants, including 247 children, were massacred by a company of troops belonging to the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich, a Waffen-SS unit of the military forces of Nazi Germany in World War II. There were only seven survivors of the massacre. SS Sturmbannführer Adolf Diekmann, the commanding officer of the Der Führer regiment of the Das Reich division, had wanted to destroy another French town, Oradour-sur-Vayres, whose people were said to be providing food and shelter to the maquis, but had taken a wrong turn on the road, which led him and his men to Oradour-sur-Glane, whose people had never supported the maquis.

A new village was built after the war on a nearby site, but on the orders of President Charles de Gaulle, the original has been maintained as a permanent memorial. The Center de la mémoire d'Oradour museum is situated adjacent to the historic site.