Oradour sur Glane

[Sunday Driver]

It's the old 'one man's patriot is another man's terrorist' cliche.

The job of the French partisans was to kill Germans.  I'd expect the partisan leadership to get the job done by recruiting merciless killers from the criminal fraternity.

The job of the Germans was to limit the effectiveness of the French partisans - either by killing them or killing the civilian population 'pour encourager les autres'.... 

 

[la-vie-en-rose]

I've just read through this thread.

In our area of France (the Gers and the Haute Garonne), French neighbours know about Oradour, but say little beyond the fact that the same sort of story occurred all over France - it is memorialised there, but similar events are remembered elsewhere too.  A friend researching stories about the war hoped to talk to a number of people about their memories and was surprised to find no-one willing to discuss it.  Families and communities were divided and it seeems that the best that many can do is "not mention the War".  I didn't like the story in the book, but I found the background in "Charlotte Gray" helped me to understand a little more of how it must be for an occupied and divided nation.  I do not think it would be any different in any other country.

[Kitty]

A massacre of German soldiers by the French resistance (this article from The Times in 2003).

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article1009019.ece

 

[Kitty]

Found an article in today's Telegraph about the village of Maille with 124 men, women and children murdered.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2176866/Hunt-for-Nazis-behind-forgotten-French-massacre.html

German investigators are to attempt to track down the perpetrators.

 

[trees 2]

Just to take this back to it's original direction, my wife and I visited Oradour for the first time in the early 70's.

There was no museum, and entry was via a gate at the end of the road where entry is now gained from the museum.

A leaflet we had at the time, in French, from a little hut at the etrance, explained about the massacre, and further stated that many artifacts were PLACED so as to be seen, in their damaged condition, hung up, stood on alcoves etc. Buildings had been tidied to reveal interiors and to make them safe.

There was little or no security, at that time, and this may explain the French decision to build secure entrances, and to limit entry to daylight hours. They also fenced off many of the houses and businesses, and the main reason for so doing, according to locals, is that souvenir hunters had begun systematically stripping the place.

I think you will find that this is why smaller items are dispalyed in the museum and underground bunker, while bicycles frames, bedsteads and sewing machines were left where they were.

I asked the old gent we bought our house from if he remembered Oradour. He said not, as he had been taken to Germany by that time as forced labour.

I asked him if he hated the Germans for what they did to him and others like him, and for what they did at Oradour, and other places.

His answer was, "How can you hate after so long? They were fighting for what they believed in, the same as we were, and our own countrymen carried out a few despicable acts too."

He went on to say that when he spoke to German people around Berlin during his forced labour time, they all bemoaned the fact that their sons, brothers fathers etc were away fighting and they had no news of them. When asked how they thought HIS family felt, they had not really considered it...............but agreed that it would be the same for them.