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Sunday, November 23, 2014

Oradour-sur-Glane

Oradour-sur-Glane is a small town in the Haute-Vienne department in the Limousin region of France.  On 10th June 1944 642 men, women and children, virtually the entire population of the town, were brutally murdered by a German Waffen SS Panzer Division.  Entering the remains of the town the first thing I noticed was a battered metal sigh propped up against the trunk of a tree bearing the word SILENCE.  A short walk on we passed the fairground where, on that fateful day, the occupants of the town were rounded up before they were massacred and burnt.   The ruined buildings still look raw even after seventy years.  The warm autumn colours did nothing to soften the harsh reality.  Today there is a new town nearby, but the original has been maintained as a permanent memorial and museum - a testimony to the cruelty humans can inflict on each other.  


2 comments:

  1. I really need to move this off my 'to do' list and onto my 'been there' list.

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    1. It's been on my 'to do' list for many years. I'm so pleased I finally made it - very thought provoking.

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