Oradour-sur-Glane

At least once a year during a European trip, I try to find a place where I can spend a quiet moment reflecting on the sacrifice so many people have made for the cause of war.  This “tradition” has become my own sort of November 11th, Remembrance Day.  In 2011, when I paused for this moment of silence, I was in the small village of Oradour-sur-Glane, not far from Limoges, France.

Most every French student knows the horrific story of this place.  We, in North America, are not as familiar with it.  On June 10, 1944, just four days after the D-Day invasion, 180 soldiers from the 2nd SS Panzer Division arrived in the small town.  With cool attention to detail, the Nazis methodically rounded up the town’s population.  The women and children were herded into the town church where they were tear-gassed and machine-gunned.  The town’s men were grouped in various barns and sheds and executed.  The town was then set on fire, its victims left under a blanket of ashes.

Gate at Oradour

The massacre left 642 people dead and was described by the historian M. D. Foot as “the most notorious Nazi atrocity in Western Europe”.  The Nazis were either seeking revenge for the killing of one of their officers (by French Resistance fighters in a neighbouring village) or simply terrorizing the populace in preparation for the upcoming Allied invasion.  Today, the ghost town, left untouched for more than 60 years, greets every pilgrim who enters with only one word:  Silence.

Church, Oradour-sur-Glane

In June, I stood in the town’s church, looking at the melted baby carriage near the alter.  With tears streaming down my face, I did my best to honour the memory of not only all the soldiers who have fought but also the innocent victims of war.