Cimetière d'Oradour-sur-Glane
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The Oradour-sur-Glane cemetery is located between the ruined village, which was declared a historical monument after the Oradour massacre in 1946, and Oradour-sur-Glane, which was rebuilt from 1947 to 1953 .
With the exception of one building, the so-called Maison d'Oradour , it is the only infrastructure facility in the village that survived its extinction on June 10, 1944 by the SS and still carries out its function today.
Due to the large number of visitors each year to the ruined village and the Center de la Mémoire d'Oradour-sur-Glane , which opened in 1999, the cemetery of this small municipality in the Limousin is one of the most visited in France . It usually forms the end of the tour of the ruined village.
massacre
642 villagers were murdered on the day that went down in history as the Oradour massacre . After the planned action, the SS looted the place. In the end, all buildings in the village, including the church, in which more than 450 women and children were imprisoned, were set on fire to destroy the traces of the massacre. However, the cemetery was not destroyed and is still preserved in its former form.
Monuments
Immediately in front of the cemetery is the state memorial for the victims of the SS massacre, which has been empty for 26 years. Due to a general amnesty for the murderers of Oradour-sur-Glane shortly after the Bordeaux Trial in 1953, the Association of Martyrs' Families decided to erect a memorial for their murdered relatives in protest and not to bury them in the state memorial.
The Oradour-sur-Glane cemetery therefore houses two monuments: a state one, which has been exhibiting everyday objects from the time before the massacre since 1974, and a private, donated memorial for the remains of those murdered as a result of the desecration and the burns could no longer be identified. Identification was only possible in around 10 percent of those murdered. They found their final resting place in the respective family graves.
Well grave
Outside the cemetery, right at the entrance to the ruined village, which leads underground through the Center de la Mémoire, there is another grave of SS victims: Several corpses were found in the well of the farmer Lauze after the massacre, probably the residents of the farm . They were already so badly decomposed that they could no longer be recovered. Therefore it was decided to cement it in place. The well then became the grave of these people.
Web links
- http://www.oradour.org Oradour-sur-Glane, Village martyr, Center de la Mémoire (website of the documentation center)
Coordinates: 45 ° 55 ′ 54.5 ″ N , 1 ° 2 ′ 25 ″ E