Oradour-sur-Glane massacre
On the 10 of June 1944, members of the German Schutzstaffel (SS) killed nearly all people in the village of Oradour-sur-Glane, near Limoges. Officially, 642 people were killed, 36 could flee, and survived the massacre. The village was completely destroyed. This event is known as the Massacre of Oradour today.
It is comparable to the Marzabotto massacre, committed in Italy, or the Distomo massacre, committed in Greece.
By the number of victims, it is the worst masacre of the Second World War, in Western Europe.
Oradour-sur-Glane Massacre Media
Wrecked hardware - bicycles, a sewing machine etc. in Oradour-sur Glane.*This is a photograph which I took during a visit to the French village Oradour-sur-Glane on June 11 2004, exactly 60 years after its destruction by the German army during World War II.
Adolf Diekmann, commander of the 4th SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment
Sequence of events during the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre on 10 June 1944
Headquarters European Theater of Operations, Prisoners of War and X Detachment, Military Intelligence Service - Escape & Evasion Report No. 866, Evasion in France, 2nd Lt. Raymond J. Murphy (0-696128), Navigator, 16 missions, 324 Bomb Squadron, 91 Bomb Group, 15 August 1944
"Watches. Some have been stopped by the heat of the fires. They mark the last hour of these men: 16:00–17:00."
