Oradour-sur-Glane was once a proud village located in the Limousin region of central western France with a population in excess of seven hundred inhabitants, that was until the 2nd World War.On the 10th June 1944 the German Waffen-SS murdered six hundred and forty two of the villagers.
The Germans took the women and children to the church where they set it on fire. Anyone who tried to escape the inferno was gunned down by machine guns so only one woman was able to escape by hiding in a bush overnight.
The men were all rounded up in barns and shot in the legs and left until all were not moving, the bodies were covered in straw and set on fire.
After the war a new village was built close by to house those that were left after this massacre, the orignial village of Oradour-sur-Glane still stands in its 2nd World War condition as a memorial to all those that lost their lives on the 10th June 1944.
Image attributed to Two wings under licence (CC-BY-SA-3.0)
