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Oradour-Sur-Glane, France
Sunday, Nov 19, 2006

Massacre

David Murray
2007-03-04 10:16:14

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WW2. Seen loads of these over the years so it was nothing new, but the part about Oradour was. We were given no reason, but on the 10th of June, 1944 or in real time, 10/06/44, an SS Garrison, surrounded the town, and moved in, pushing everyone into the centre. The women were removed and placed into a church, the men were put into three different buildings. Machine guns were set up, and the SS systematically began to group execute the men. The women in the church, had an incendiary bomb set off. Whilst it was on fire, the SS came in and started to shoot them. Amazingly, two women escaped through a stained glass window. Only one survived. Five men survived the massacre as well. All told, 642 people were killed on that day. The village was set on fire. The bodies were burnt and that was the end of the original Oradour-Sur-Glane. What is left is a reminder to the world of that day. After we finished the museum, we walked into the village. There were still old power lines up., Tram tracks, awaiting for the next tram, even a little station. No noise anywhere. Rusting bodies of cars were left lying about. Practically every house had a sewing machine. It was eerie. A real ghost town. We walked around all the streets, before we came to the church. Having been to 100's of churches over the years, I was ready for this, or so I thought. Upon entering, you could feel the sadness that had taken place all those years ago. Women and children screaming, as we walked over the ground, where they had fallen. You can only take so much before you have to leave, so we took one last long walk through the village, and then exited back through the museum. Jumped back into the car and went off to our next port of call

We drove until we came across a little area that was full of churches and old houses. Yes, they are all over France, but in Uzerche, the majority of them have turrets like on a castle. At the top was a huge old house that could have passed as a castle, and beside ...