March 2010, en route to Limoges and we overnighted on a small Aire near some tennis courts in Oradour. On a cold, frosty morning, once we’d defrosted our gas cylinder, we waited for some sunshine and walked under the new road to the old village of Oradour Sur Glane.
On the 10th of June 1944 the SS Panzer Division Das Reich drove into the town and murdered 642 men, women and children. The men were stood against walls where they were and shot. The women and children were herded into the church and murdered. The village is now a “stage set” museum. The graveyard at the back of the village is all too real though!
No more words needed apart from photo descriptions.
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| The “Doctor’s” car. |
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| The tram station. |
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| The Main Street. At the top of the steps was a small parade of shops. |
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| The interior of one of the houses. |
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| Cars parked or stored due to lack of petrol. |
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| The most chilling place. The church where the women and children were murdered. They were machine-gunned and then burnt. Only one small child managed to escape. The altar has been cleaned to expose the bullet holes. |
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| Cars stored inside the main garage. These were collected from around the village when the village was turned into a museum. |
There is loads on the internet about the massacre and village. Well worth a read!
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