Town number two - Oradour Sur Glane

Peggy Glassford told us about Oradour or we would have missed it. Four days after the Normandy landing, as the Nazi troops were preparing to move north, being aware that resistance efforts might impede their movement, they decided to make an especially brutal example of a town. There was no resistance movement in Oradour but it was easily surrounded, so it was picked. The men were rounded up and shot. Only one escaped. The women and children were herded into the church, which was set on fire. Machine guns and grenades were fired into the church then the whole town was set on fire. Survivors from around the region said the bodies were unrecognizable so families could not mourn and have closure. To make things worse, when trials were held of the perpetrators, they were all given amnesty. Consequently, the entire town has been left as a memorial. A museum tells the story. Little things that grip your heart: the meat hook and scale in the former butcher shop, the rusted cars in the garage and the sewing machines in many of the homes, rusted but recognizable. And, in the cemetery, photos of the children.