Robert Hébras

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Robert Hébras (2008)

Robert Hébras (born June 29, 1925 in Oradour-sur-Glane ) is one of only seven people (one woman and 6 men) who survived the Oradour massacre on June 10, 1944.

biography

The only female survivor of this mass murder, who in post-war France became the national symbol of Nazi atrocities, is called Marguerite Rouffanche. She alone escaped the village church, which had become a death trap, where 207 children and 254 women were suffocated or burned by the fire set by the Waffen-SS .

With Robert Hébras, Jean-Marcel Darthout, Mathieu Borie, Clément Broussaudier, Yvon Roby and Pierre-Henri Poutaraud, only six of the 186 male civilians survived the executions carried out with submachine guns. The six named stayed - some of them under the corpses of their comrades - in the Laundy barn and pretended to be dead. The Waffen SS soldiers climbed the pile of corpses and shot anyone who was still moving. A quarter of an hour after the executions, the barn was set on fire by the Waffen SS to remove the traces of the massacre. Pierre-Henri Poutaraud escaped from the fire too early and was finally shot by one of the Waffen SS guards near the cemetery. Fearing for their lives, the five remaining men waited first under and then next to the burning corpses until they could sneak into side rooms of the barn and hide. Three of the five men who managed to escape from the village, which was now burning, were seriously injured by the hail of bullets, including Robert Hébras. A bullet stuck in his leg and another brushed his wrist.

Half of the Hébras family - the mother Marie, the nine-year-old daughter Denise and the 22-year-old daughter Georgette - died in the extinction of Oradour. Apart from the son Robert Hébras, only the father, who happened to be helping out a farmer friend outside Oradour on the day of the mass murder, and the eldest daughter Leni, who was already married and therefore lived in a different place, survived.

After June 10, 1944 Robert Hébras took an active part in the resistance against National Socialism and fought on the side of the French Resistance in the last year of the war . In 1953 he testified at the Bordeaux trial of 21 Waffen SS recruits who were involved in the Oradour massacre. In 1983 Robert Hébras took part in what was then the GDR as a witness in the trial of one of Oradour's murderers - Heinz Barth . In 2003 a documentary with the title "Encounter with Robert Hébras - On the trail of extinguished life" was released by the German filmmaker Bodo Kaiser.

Robert Hébras makes a particular contribution to remembering, commemorating and coming to terms with the time of National Socialism through his commitment as a contemporary witness and book author. The former resistance fighter worked for reconciliation between Germany, France and Austria throughout his life. Despite his old age, Robert Hébras still gives guided tours through the ruins of the village. He is available to young people - especially schoolchildren, students, volunteers and memorial servants - for interviews and video projects and is still actively involved in the Center de la mémoire .

In addition, the trained mechanic held the office of chairman of the National Association of Martyrs' Families for many years and is still the chairman of the assembly of former combatants from Oradour.

Robert Hébras is married with a son and three grandchildren and lives in Saint-Junien near Oradour-sur-Glane.

Awards

Publications

Web links

Commons : Robert Hébras  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Interview with Robert Hébras survivor of the Oradour massacre on June 10, 1944 ( Memento of September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), Werner Kutil, April 26, 2002
  2. ↑ Robert Hébras receives the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Award
  3. ↑ a b Federal President's Office
  4. ↑ Robert Hébras décoré par le consul d'Allemagne , June 5, 2013
personal data
SURNAME Hébras, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Survivor of the massacre in Oradour-sur-Glane
DATE OF BIRTH June 29, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Oradour-sur-Glane