Oradour-sur-Glane ,France Nazi massacre site. 10 June 1944

 

What happened to the village?

On 10 June 1944, a detachment of SS troops surrounded the tiny hamlet of Oradour-sur-Glane in the Limousin region of south-central France.

It is believed by some that the troops were seeking retribution for the kidnap of a German soldier but some say that resistance members were based in a different, nearby village.

 

 

Most of the victims were women and children. Many of them were herded into a local church into which hand grenades were thrown before it was set on fire.

The men were locked in a barn. Machine-gunners shot at their legs, then doused them in petrol and set them alight.

An investigation years later saw some 60 soldiers brought to trial in the 1950s. Twenty of them were convicted but all were later released.