Editing Oradour-sur-Glane massacre

{{Short description|642 civilians massacred by a German Waffen-SS company in 1944}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2017}}
{{Coord|45.9280|N|1.0410|E|source:wikidata|display=title}}
{{Expand French|date=February 2024}}
{{Infobox civilian attack
| title = Oradour-sur-Glane massacre
| partof = [[World War II]]
| image = [[File:Oradour-sur-Glane-Hardware-1342.jpg|frameless|center|upright=1.35]]
| caption = Wrecked hardware – bicycles, sewing machines – left in the ruins of Oradour-sur-Glane
| date = 10 June 1944
| location = [[Oradour-sur-Glane]], France
| injuries = 1
| victims = French civilians
| type = [[Mass murder]]
| fatalities = 642 (190 men, 247 women and 205 children) killed<ref>Staff (2 October 2020) [https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2020/10/02/ramona-dominguez-gil-victime-jusqu-ici-ignoree-du-massacre-d-oradour-sur-glane_6054555_3246.html "Ramona Dominguez Gil, victime jusqu’ici ignorée du massacre d’Oradour-sur-Glane"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210610120424/https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2020/10/02/ramona-dominguez-gil-victime-jusqu-ici-ignoree-du-massacre-d-oradour-sur-glane_6054555_3246.html |date=10 June 2021 }} ''[[Le Monde]]''</ref><ref>[https://gw.geneanet.org/oradour1944?lang=fr&m=TT&sm=S&t=Victime+du+Massacre+(Mort+pour+la+France) "Victime du Massacre (Mort pour la France) (643)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210918132421/https://gw.geneanet.org/oradour1944?lang=fr&m=TT&sm=S&t=Victime+du+Massacre+%28Mort+pour+la+France%29 |date=18 September 2021 }} ''Geneanet''</ref>
| perpetrators = [[Waffen-SS]]
* [[Heinz Lammerding]] ([[2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich]])
** [[Sylvester Stadler]] (4th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment)
*** [[Adolf Diekmann]] (1st Battalion, 4th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment)
| motive = The kidnap and murder of [[Helmut Kämpfe]] ([[Reprisal]])
}}
{{Location map | France
| AlternativeMap = France relief location map.jpg
| width = 200
| float = right
| caption = Location of Oradour-sur-Glane in France
| alt = Map of France with mark showing location of Oradour-sur-Glane
| label = Oradour-sur-Glane
| lat_deg = 45.938
| lon_deg = 1.041
}}

On 10 June 1944, four days after [[Normandy landings|D-Day]], the village of [[Oradour-sur-Glane]] in [[Haute-Vienne]] in [[German military administration in occupied France during World War II|Nazi-occupied France]] was destroyed when 642 civilians, including non-combatant men, women, and children, were [[massacre]]d by a German ''[[Waffen-SS]]'' company. The execution was retribution in the form of [[collective punishment]] for Resistance activity in the area, including the capture and subsequent execution of ''[[Sturmbannführer]]'' [[Helmut Kämpfe]], the 3rd Battalion commander of 4th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment, and a close friend of the 1st battalion commander of the same regiment, Waffen-SS ''Sturmbannführer'' [[Adolf Diekmann]], who an informant incorrectly claimed had been burned alive in front of an audience. Both of them were battalion commanders in the [[2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich|2nd SS Panzer Division ''Das Reich'']].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Memorial to the kidnapping of Kämpfe on the N141 |url=https://www.oradour.info/images/kampfe05.htm |access-date=2023-07-05 |website=www.oradour.info}}</ref> 

The Germans murdered everyone they found in the village at the time, as well as people brought in from the surrounding area.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pauchou |first1=Guy |last2=Masfrand |first2=Pierre |title=Oradour-sur-Glane, vision d'épouvante, ouvrage officiel du Comité national du souvenir et de l'Association nationale des familles de martyrs d'Oradour-sur-Glane |date=1945 |publisher=Charles-Lavauzelle & Cie |location=Limoges |page=115 |edition=1978}}</ref> The death toll includes people who were merely passing by in the village at the time of the SS company's arrival. Men were brought into barns and sheds where they were shot in the legs and doused with petroleum before the barns were set on fire. Women and children were herded into a church that was set on fire; those who tried to escape through the windows were machine gunned. Extensive looting took place.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fouché |first1=Jean-Jacques |title=Oradour |date=2001 |publisher=Liana Levi |location=Paris |isbn=978-2867462719}}</ref><ref name="hivernaud">{{cite book |last1=Hivernaud |first1=Albert |title=Petite histoire d'Oradour-sur-Glane : de la préhistoire à nos jours |date=1989 |publisher=Imprimerie A. Bontemps |location=Limoges |edition=7th}}</ref>

All in all, 642 people are recorded to have been murdered. The death toll includes 17 Spanish citizens, 8 Italians (a woman with 7 of her 9 children), and 3 Poles.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ramona Domínguez Gil, la 643e victime du massacre d'Oradour-sur-Glane ne sera plus jamais oubliée |date=2 October 2020 |url=https://www.lepopulaire.fr/oradour-sur-glane-87520/actualites/ramona-domnguez-gil-la-643e-victime-du-massacre-d-oradour-sur-glane-ne-sera-plus-jamais-oubliee_13846759/ |publisher=Le Populaire du Centre |access-date=12 February 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Comprendre Oradour. L'intégrale du parcours de mémoire : documentation, iconographie, témoignages. |date=2000 |publisher=Centre de la Mémoire d'Oradour-sur-Glane}}</ref><ref name="hivernaud"/>

Only six people are known to have survived the massacre — five men and one woman.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Benz |first1=Wolfgang |last2=Graml |first2=Hermann |last3=Weiß |first3=Hermann |title=Enzyklopädie des Nationalsozialismus |date=1997 |publisher=Klett-Cotta |location=Stuttgart |chapter=Oradour-sur-Glane}}</ref> A seventh survivor was discovered later and murdered. The last living survivor, [[Robert Hébras]], known for his activism for reconciliation between France, [[France–Germany relations|Germany]], and [[Austria–France relations|Austria]], died on 11 February 2023, aged 97.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.lemonde.fr/disparitions/article/2023/02/11/robert-hebras-dernier-survivant-d-oradour-sur-glane-est-mort_6161439_3382.html |title=Robert Hébras, dernier survivant du massacre d'Oradour-sur-Glane, est mort |language=fr |date=11 February 2023 |newspaper=[[Le Monde]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Genzlinger |first=Neil |date=February 26, 2023 |title=Robert Hébras, Last Survivor of a 1944 Massacre in France, Dies at 97 |newspaper=New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/24/world/europe/robert-hebras-dead.html |access-date=2023-02-26 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> He was 18 years old at the time of the massacre.

The village was never rebuilt. A completely new village was built nearby after the war. [[President of France|President]] [[Charles de Gaulle]] ordered that the ruins of the old village be maintained as a permanent memorial and museum.

In 1983 SS-Untersturmfuhrer [[Heinz Barth]] became the first senior commander to face trial for the massacre, claiming before a judge that he was shocked that there were any survivors and that the decision was made to wipe the village from the face of the Earth. But there were survivors that were in attendance to see Barth sentenced to life imprisonment.

==Background==
[[File:Adolf Diekmann.jpg|thumb|left|180px|[[Adolf Diekmann]], commander of the 1st Battalion, 4th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment]]
In February 1944, the [[2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich|2nd SS Panzer Division ''Das Reich'']] was stationed in the [[Southern France|Southern French]] town of [[Valence, Tarn-et-Garonne|Valence-d'Agen]],<ref name="AD-T&G">{{in lang|fr}} [[commons:File:AD-T&G-valencedagen-occupation.png|« Rubrique Valence d'Agen »]], ''Archives du Tarn-et-Garonne'', 11 June 2011.</ref> north of [[Toulouse]], waiting to be resupplied with new equipment and fresh troops. Following the [[Normandy landings]] in June 1944, the division was ordered north to help stop the Allied advance. One of its units was the 4th SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment "''Der Führer''". Its staff included regimental commander ''SS-[[Standartenführer]]'' [[Sylvester Stadler]], ''SS-[[Sturmbannführer]]'' [[Adolf Diekmann]] commanding the 1st Battalion and ''SS-Sturmbannführer'' [[Otto Weidinger]], Stadler's designated successor who was with the regiment for familiarisation. Command passed to Weidinger on 14 June.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.oradour.info/appendix/dasorder.htm |title= Order of Battle for Das Reich as of June 1944 |publisher= Oradour.info |date= 9 June 1944 |access-date= 24 November 2012 |archive-date= 2 January 2013 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130102180625/http://www.oradour.info/appendix/dasorder.htm |url-status= live }}</ref>

Early on the morning of 10 June 1944, Diekmann informed Weidinger that he had been approached by two members of the ''[[Milice]]'', a [[paramilitary]] force of the [[Vichy France|Vichy Regime]]. They claimed that a ''Waffen-SS'' officer was being held prisoner by the [[French Resistance]] in [[Oradour-sur-Vayres]], a nearby village. The captured officer was claimed to be ''SS-Sturmbannführer'' [[Helmut Kämpfe]], commander of the 2nd SS Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion (also part of the ''Das Reich'' division). Kämpfe was captured by the [[Maquis du Limousin]] the day before while traveling in a German army vehicle marked as an ambulance protected by the Geneva Convention.<ref>{{cite web |title=Practice relating to Rule 59: Improper Use of the Distinctive Emblems of the Geneva Conventions |url=https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v2/rule59 |website=International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Databases |access-date=May 21, 2023}}</ref>

==Massacre==
{{more citations needed|section|date=June 2020}}
[[File:Oradour-sur-Glane massacre.jpg|thumb|upright=1.6|right|Sequence of events during the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre on 10 June 1944]]
On 10 June, Diekmann's battalion sealed off Oradour-sur-Glane and ordered everyone within to assemble in the village square to have their [[National identity card (France)|identity papers]] examined. This included six non-residents who happened to be bicycling through the village when the SS unit arrived. The women and children were locked in the church, and the village was looted. The men were led to six barns and sheds, where machine guns were already in place. According to a survivor's account, the SS men then began shooting, aiming for the victims' legs. When they were unable to move, the SS men covered them with fuel and set the barns on fire. Only six men managed to escape. One of them was later seen walking down a road and was shot dead. In all, 190 of the men died.

==Burning of women and children in the church==
The SS men next proceeded to the church and placed an [[incendiary device]] beside it. When it was ignited, women and children tried to escape through the doors and windows, only to be met with machine-gun fire. 247 women and 205 children died in the attack. The only survivor was 47-year-old Marguerite Rouffanche. She escaped through a rear [[sacristy]] window, followed by a young woman and child.<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/f/farmer-village.html |newspaper= [[The New York Times]] |author= Farmer, Sarah |year= 1999 |title= Martyred Village |type= book review |access-date= 27 February 2017 |archive-date= 11 June 2017 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170611234734/http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/f/farmer-village.html |url-status= live }}</ref> All three were shot, two of them fatally. Rouffanche crawled to some pea bushes and remained hidden overnight until she was found and rescued the next morning. About twenty villagers had fled Oradour-sur-Glane as soon as the SS unit had appeared. That night, the village was partially razed.

Several days later, the survivors were allowed to bury the 642 dead inhabitants of Oradour-sur-Glane who had been killed in just a few hours. Adolf Diekmann said the atrocity was in retaliation for the partisan activity in nearby [[Tulle]] and the kidnapping and murder of SS commander Helmut Kämpfe, who was burned alive in a field ambulance with other German soldiers.

Amongst the men of the town killed were three priests who worked in the parish. It was also reported that the SS troops desecrated the church, including deliberately scattering Communion hosts before they forced the women and children into it. The Bishop of Limoges visited the village in the days after the massacre, one of the first public figures to do so, and his account of what he witnessed is one of the earliest available.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Fouché |first1=Jean-Jacques |title=Oradour, 10 Juin 1944 : Un Massacre Nazi En France Occupée |url=https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/fr/document/oradour-10-juin-1944-un-massacre-nazi-en-france-occupa-e |website=Violence de masse et Résistance – Réseau de recherche |access-date=4 May 2020 |archive-date=6 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806045515/https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/fr/document/oradour-10-juin-1944-un-massacre-nazi-en-france-occupa-e |url-status=live }}</ref> Amongst those who went to bury the dead and document the event by taking photographs were some local seminarians.

===Murphy report===
[[File:Headquarters European Theater of Operations, Prisoners of War and X Detachment, Military Intelligence Service, Escape & Evasion Report No. 866, Evasion in France, 2nd Lt. Raymond J. Murphy, Navigator, 324 Bomb Squadron, 91 Bomb Group.pdf|right|thumb|[[Escape and evasion lines (World War II)|Escape and Evasion]] Report No. 866, Evasion in France, 2nd Lt. Raymond J. Murphy, Navigator, 324 Bomb Squadron, 91 Bomb Group (H), 15 August 1944|340x340px]]
Raymond J. Murphy, a 20-year-old American [[Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress|B-17]] [[navigator]] shot down over [[Avord]], France in late April 1944, witnessed the aftermath of the massacre.<ref name="harris2014" /> After being hidden by the French Resistance, Murphy was flown to England on 6 August, and in [[debriefing]] filled in a questionnaire on 7 August and made several drafts of a formal report.<ref name="harris2014" /> The version finally submitted on 15 August has a handwritten addendum:<ref name=murphy>{{cite news | url= http://media.nara.gov/nw/305270/EE-866.pdf?bcsi_scan%20_0F6519961A%20220080=0&bcsi_scan_filename=EE-866.pdf | work= E&E Report No. 866 | author= Murphy, Raymond J., 2d Lt., U.S.A.C. | year= 1944 | title= Evasion in France | url-status= dead | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20141018073023/http://media.nara.gov/nw/305270/EE-866.pdf?bcsi_scan%20_0F6519961A%20220080=0&bcsi_scan_filename=EE-866.pdf | archive-date= 18 October 2014 | df= dmy-all }}</ref>
{{blockquote|About 3 weeks ago, I saw a town within 4 hours bicycle ride up {{sic}} the Gerbeau farm [of Resistance leader Camille Gerbeau] where some 500 men, women, and children had been murdered by the Germans. I saw one baby who had been crucified.}}

Murphy's report was made public in 2011 after a [[Freedom of Information Act (United States)|Freedom of Information Act]] request by his grandson, an attorney in the [[United States Department of Justice National Security Division]].<ref name="harris2014" /> It is the only account to mention crucifying a baby.<ref name="harris2014" /> [[Shane Harris]] concludes that the addendum is a true statement by Murphy and that the town, not named in Murphy's report, is very likely Oradour-sur-Glane.<ref name="harris2014">{{cite news|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/06/05/the_massacre_oradour_sur_glane_wwii_france|newspaper=[[Foreign Policy]]|author=Harris, Shane|date=June 5, 2014|title=The Massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane: An American lawyer finds new evidence about one of World War II's most notorious war crimes, seven decades after D-Day|access-date=10 March 2017|archive-date=7 November 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141107080845/http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/06/05/the_massacre_oradour_sur_glane_wwii_france|url-status=live}}</ref>

==German response==
Protests at Diekmann's unilateral action followed, both from Field Marshal [[Erwin Rommel]], General Walter Gleiniger, German commander in [[Limoges]], as well as the Vichy Government. Even Stadler felt Diekmann had far exceeded his orders and began an investigation. However, Diekmann was killed in action shortly afterwards during the [[Operation Overlord|Battle of Normandy]]; many of the 3rd Company, which had conducted the massacre, were also killed in action. The investigation was then suspended.{{citation needed|date=May 2024}}

==Postwar trials==
On 12 January 1953, a military tribunal in [[Bordeaux]] heard the charges against the surviving 65 of the 200 or so SS men who had been involved. Only 21 of them were present, as many were in [[West Germany|West]] and [[East Germany]], which would not extradite them. Seven of those present for the charges were German citizens, but 14 were [[Alsace|Alsatians]], French nationals whose home region had been occupied by Germany in 1940 and later integrated into the [[German Reich]]. All but one of the Alsatians claimed to have been forced to join the Waffen-SS. Such forced conscripts from Alsace and [[Lorraine]] called themselves the ''[[malgré-nous]]'', meaning "against our will".

On 11 February, 19 of the 20 defendants were convicted.  Five received terms of imprisonment and two were executed.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Oradour-sur-Glane | title=Oradour-sur-Glane &#124; France, Massacre, Map, & World War II |website= Britannica | date=29 June 2023 }}</ref>  Continuing uproar in Alsace (including demands for autonomy) pressed the French parliament to pass an amnesty law for all the ''malgré-nous'' on 19 February. The convicted Alsatian former SS men were released shortly afterwards, which caused bitter protests in the [[Limousin (region)|Limousin]] region.

By 1958 the remaining German defendants had been released. General [[Heinz Lammerding]] of the Das Reich division, who had given the orders for retaliation against the Resistance, died in 1971, following a successful entrepreneurial career. At the time of the trial, he lived in [[Düsseldorf]], in the former British occupation zone of West Germany, and the French government never obtained his extradition from West Germany.<ref>Farmer, Sarah. ''Oradour : arrêt sur mémoire'', Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 1994, pp. 30–34</ref>

The last trial of a Waffen-SS member who had been involved took place in 1983. Former ''SS-Obersturmführer'' [[Heinz Barth]] was tracked down in East Germany. Barth had participated in the massacre as a platoon leader in the "''Der Führer''" regiment, commanding 45 SS men. He was one of several charged with giving orders to shoot 20 men in a garage. Barth was sentenced to life imprisonment by the First Senate of the City Court of [[Berlin]]. He was released from prison in the reunified Germany in 1997 and died in August 2007.

On 8 January 2014, Werner Christukat,<ref>{{cite news|last1=Smale|first1=Alison|title=German Court Finds Lack of Proof Tying Ex-Soldier to Nazi Massacre|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/10/world/europe/german-court-nazi-massacre-evidence-oradour-sur-glane.html|access-date=12 December 2014|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=December 9, 2014|archive-date=10 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141210215609/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/10/world/europe/german-court-nazi-massacre-evidence-oradour-sur-glane.html|url-status=live}}</ref> an 88-year-old former member of the 3rd Company of the 1st Battalion of the "''Der Führer''" regiment was charged, by the state court in [[Cologne]], with 25 charges of murder and hundreds of counts of accessory to murder in connection with the massacre in Oradour-sur-Glane.<ref name=Smale>{{cite news|last=Smale|first=Alison|title=In Germany, Former SS Man, 88, Charged With Wartime Mass Murder|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=8 January 2014 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/09/world/europe/in-germany-former-ss-man-88-charged-with-wartime-mass-murder.html?hp|access-date=10 January 2014|archive-date=9 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140109031955/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/09/world/europe/in-germany-former-ss-man-88-charged-with-wartime-mass-murder.html?hp|url-status=live}}</ref> The suspect, who was identified only as Werner C., had until 31 March 2014 to respond to the charges. If the case went to trial, it could have possibly been held in a [[juvenile court]] because the suspect was only 19 at the time it occurred. According to his attorney, Rainer Pohlen, the suspect acknowledged being at the village but denied being involved in any killings.<ref>{{cite news|last=Rising|first=David|title=88-Year-Old Charged in Nazi-Era Massacre|url=https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/88-year-charged-nazi-era-massacre-21459844|access-date=11 January 2014|newspaper=[[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]]|date=8 January 2014|agency=Associated Press|archive-date=11 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140111023448/http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/88-year-charged-nazi-era-massacre-21459844|url-status=live}}</ref> On 9 December 2014, the court dropped the case, citing a lack of any witness statements or reliable documentary evidence able to disprove the suspect's contention that he was not a part of the massacre.<ref>{{cite web|author=Agence France-Presse|author-link=Agence France-Presse|date=9 December 2014|title=Court drops case against German over WWII French village massacre|url=http://www.france24.com/en/20141209-court-drops-case-german-wwii-french-massacre-Oradour-sur-Glane/|access-date=9 December 2014|archive-date=10 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141210083448/http://www.france24.com/en/20141209-court-drops-case-german-wwii-french-massacre-Oradour-sur-Glane/|url-status=live}}</ref> Christukat died in 2020.<ref>{{cite web |title=Werner Christukat |url=https://www.wirtrauern.de/traueranzeige/werner-christukat |website=Wir Trauern |date=8 August 2020}}</ref>

==Memorial==
{{multiple image
| align     = right
| direction = horizontal
| image1    = Oradour-sur-Glane map-en.svg
| caption1  = Map showing the modern and former village
| image2    = Village_martyr_d'Oradour-sur-Glane_11.jpg
| caption2  = Memorial
| total_width = 540
}}

After the war, General [[Charles de Gaulle]] decided the village should never be rebuilt, but would remain a memorial to the cruelty of the Nazi occupation. The new village of Oradour-sur-Glane (population 2,375 in 2012), northwest of the site of the massacre, was built after the war. The ruins of the original village remain as a memorial to the dead and to represent similar sites and events.

In 1999 French president [[Jacques Chirac]] dedicated a memorial museum, the ''[[Centre de la mémoire d'Oradour]]'', near the entrance to the ''Village Martyr'' ("martyred village"). Its museum includes items recovered from the burned-out buildings: watches stopped at the time their owners were burned alive, glasses melted from the intense heat, and various personal items.[[File:Oradour montres.jpg|thumb|"Watches. Some have been stopped by the heat of the fires. They mark the last hour of these men: 16:00–17:00."]]On 6 June 2004, at the commemorative ceremony of the Normandy invasion in [[Caen]], German chancellor [[Gerhard Schröder]] pledged that Germany would not forget the Nazi atrocities and specifically mentioned Oradour-sur-Glane.

On 4 September 2013, German president [[Joachim Gauck]] and French president [[François Hollande]] visited the ghost village of Oradour-sur-Glane. A joint news conference broadcast by the two leaders followed their tour of the site.<ref name="Olivennes">{{cite web|last=Olivennes|first=Hannah|title=German president visits site of Nazi massacre in France|date=4 September 2013 |url=http://www.france24.com/en/20130904-germany-france-president-pays-historic-visit-french-world-war-2-massacre-site-oradour-sur-glane-nazis|publisher=France 24 International News|access-date=4 September 2013|archive-date=4 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130904172402/http://www.france24.com/en/20130904-germany-france-president-pays-historic-visit-french-world-war-2-massacre-site-oradour-sur-glane-nazis|url-status=live}}</ref> This was the first time a German president had come to the site of one of the biggest World War II massacres on French soil.<ref name="Olivennes" />

On 28 April 2017, French presidential candidate [[Emmanuel Macron]] visited Oradour-sur-Glane and met with the only remaining survivor of the massacre, [[Robert Hébras]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Morenne|first1=Benoit|title=Le Pen Aide Is Fired Over Holocaust Comments|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/28/world/europe/le-pen-macron-holocaust-france-elections.html?_r=0|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=April 29, 2017|access-date=29 April 2017|archive-date=10 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170810014049/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/28/world/europe/le-pen-macron-holocaust-france-elections.html?_r=0|url-status=live}}</ref> Hébras was 18 at the time of the massacre and died at age 97 in 2023.<ref>{{cite news |language=fr |title=Les 23 heures |publisher=[[France Info]] |date=11 February 2023 <!--|access-date=11 February 2023-->}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Robert Hébras, dernier survivant du massacre d'Oradour-sur-Glane, est mort |trans-title=Robert Hebras, last survivor of the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre, has died |date=11 February 2023 |website=[[Le Monde]] |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/disparitions/article/2023/02/11/robert-hebras-dernier-survivant-d-oradour-sur-glane-est-mort_6161439_3382.html |access-date=11 February 2023}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
'''Television'''
* The story of Oradour-sur-Glane was featured in the 1973–74 British documentary television series ''[[The World at War]]'', narrated by [[Laurence Olivier]]. The first and final episodes (1 and 26, entitled "A New Germany" and "Remember" respectively) show helicopter views of the destroyed village, interspersed with pictures of the victims that appear on their graves.
* The massacre is referenced in the 2010 series ''[[World War II in Colour]]'' in the episode "Overlord", which aired on 7 January 2010. It was also featured in part 2 of ''Hitler's Death Army'', which aired on 27 November 2015, and showed both images from the time along with the ruins as they are today.<ref>[https://www.natgeotv.com/uk/shows/natgeo/hitler-s-death-army "Hitlers Death Army – Das Reich"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151125115110/http://natgeotv.com/uk/hitler-s-death-army-das-reich |date=25 November 2015 }} [[National Geographic TV]] website</ref>

'''Film'''
* The 1963 Czechoslovak film ''[[Voyage to the End of the Universe|Ikarie XB-1]]'' references the massacre, with a character referring to a crew of humans from the 20th century as “''human trash, that left Auschwitz, Oradour, Hiroshima behind them''.”
* The 1975 French film ''[[Le vieux fusil]]'', is based on these facts.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073864/|title=The Old Gun|date=22 August 1975|via=www.imdb.com|access-date=29 June 2018|archive-date=26 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181026005710/https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073864/|url-status=live}}</ref>
* The 1989 British film ''[[Souvenir_(1989_film)|Souvenir]]'', is based on the massacre. In the film, an ex-German soldier returns as an American to Oradour-sur-Glane where he participated in atrocities committed by the Nazis, during which his then French lover was murdered. The film is based on the book [[The Pork Butcher]] by [[David Hughes (novelist)|David Hughes]] published in 1984 .
* A feature film, ''Une Vie avec Oradour'', was released in September 2011 in France.<ref>[http://www.allocine.fr/video/player_gen_cmedia=19246435&cfilm=195225.html "Une Vie avec Oradour"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210305034249/https://www.allocine.fr/video/player_gen_cmedia%3D19246435%26cfilm%3D195225.html |date=5 March 2021 }} ''Allocine''</ref>

'''Literature'''
* In the 1947 Russian novel ''The Storm'' by [[USSR State Prize|Stalin Prize]]-winner [[Ilya Ehrenburg]], there is a fictionalized detailed description of the massacre (part vi, chapter a), citing the actual place and the actual SS unit responsible.  The novel was published in English in 1948 by the Foreign Languages Publishing House in Moscow, and in 1949 by Gaer Associates of New York.<ref>[http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?author=Ilya+Ehrenburg&title=The+Storm&lang=en&isbn=&new_used=*&first_ed=on&destination=us¤cy=USD&mode=basic&st=sr&ac=qr Search results] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225154751/https://www.bookfinder.com/search/?author=Ilya+Ehrenburg&title=The+Storm&lang=en&isbn=&new_used=*&first_ed=on&destination=us¤cy=USD&mode=basic&st=sr&ac=qr |date=25 February 2021 }} Bookfinder.com</ref>
* In 1984, [[David Hughes (novelist)|David Hughes]] published [[The Pork Butcher]], a novel based on the massacre of the inhabitants of Oradour-sur-Glane and the subsequent memorialisation of the razed village. The book was made into a film titled [[Souvenir_(1989_film)|Souvenir]] in 1989.
* In ''[[The Hanging Garden (Rankin novel)|The Hanging Garden]]'' (1998) by [[Ian Rankin]], [[John Rebus|Detective Inspector John Rebus]] investigates a suspected war criminal accused of leading the massacre of the fictional village of Villefranche d'Albarede, based on Oradour-sur-Glane.<ref>{{Cite web|author=Taylor, Andrew|date=19 January 1998|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/tuesdays-book-the-hanging-garden-by-ian-rankin-orion-pounds-1699-1139714.html|title=Tuesday's Book: The Hanging Garden by Ian Rankin (review)|website=The Independent|language=en-GB|access-date=2016-05-11|archive-date=5 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160605062410/http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/tuesdays-book-the-hanging-garden-by-ian-rankin-orion-pounds-1699-1139714.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
* The poet [[Gillian Clarke]], [[National Poet of Wales]], commemorates the massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane in two poems from her 2009 collection ''A Recipe for Water'',<ref>Clarke, Gillian (2009) ''A Recipe for Water'', Carcanet (Manchester), pp. 59–60</ref> "Oradour-sur-Glane" and "Singer".
* In 2013, [[Helen Watts]] published ''One Day in Oradour'', a short novel based on the events of 1944. Some names of the characters and locations have been changed, and some characters are composites of several individuals.
* In 2015, [[Ethan Mordden]] published ''One Day in France'', a short novel based on the events of 1944. Covering a twenty-four-hour period and moving back and forth between Oradour and nearby Limoges, the story fits invented characters into the historical record.
* The plot of ''[[The Alice Network]]'', a 2017 [[historical fiction|historical novel]] by American author [[Kate Quinn]], incorporates a reference to the massacre. Real-life survivor Marguerite Rouffanche appears as a minor character.

'''Music'''
* [[Silent Planet]]'s 2014 song "Tiny Hands (Au Revoir)" describes the massacre in Oradour-sur-Glane through the eyes of Madame Marguerite Rouffanche, the sole survivor of the church massacre.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://hmmagazine.com/hm-exclusive-silent-planet-premieres-tiny-hands/ |title= HM Exclusive: Silent Planet premieres 'Tiny Hands' |language=en |last= Stagg |first= David  |date=December 25, 2013 |website=hmmagazine.com |access-date=September 2, 2023 }}</ref>

'''Musical'''
* In 2015, the German musical ''Mademoiselle Marie'' by Fritz Stiegler (script) and Matthias Lange (music) covered the hostile sentiments of Oradour descendants to Germans in a post-war love story of 1955. Visitors from Oradour to an outdoor performance in front of [[Cadolzburg#Castle|Cadolzburg Castle]] (Bavaria) praised it as "a message of reconciliation and tolerance".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cadolzburger-burgfestspiele.de/unsere-stuecke/mademoiselle-marie/ |title=Mademoiselle Marie |work=Cadolzburger Burgfestspiele |date=2015 |language=de |accessdate=2023-07-17 }}</ref> In 2017, a French audience in the new village of Oradour-sur-Glane enthusiastically applauded performances by the same (mostly) amateur troupe, which received praise as an act of international understanding.<ref>{{cite web |author=Sabine Rempe |url=https://www.nordbayern.de/region/fuerth/cadolzburger-musical-ruhrt-die-franzosen-1.6596739 |title=Cadolzburger Musical rührt die Franzosen |trans-title=Cadolzburg Musical moves the French |work=www.nordbayern.de |date=2017-09-10 |language=de |accessdate=2023-07-17 }}</ref>

==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=28em}}
* [[Babi Yar]]
* [[Belchite]], a town in Spain with a similar memorial
* [[Distomo massacre]], on the same date
* [[List of French villages destroyed in World War I]]
* [[List of massacres in France]]
* [[Ivanci massacre]]
* [[Kalavryta massacre]]
* [[Razing of Kandanos|Kandanos]]
* [[Koriukivka massacre]]
* [[Katyn massacre]]
* [[Khatyn massacre]]
* [[Ležáky#Massacre|Ležáky massacre]]
* [[Lidice massacre]]
* [[Memorial Centre Lipa Remembers|Lipa massacre]]
* [[Massacre of villages under Kamešnica]]
* [[Maquis (World War II)]]
* [[Maquis du Vercors]]
* [[Maillé massacre]]
* [[Michniów massacre]]
* [[Putten raid]]
* [[Burning of the Riga synagogues]]
* [[Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre]]
* [[Sochy massacre]]
* [[Tulle massacre]]
* [[Wola massacre]]
* [[War crimes in World War II]]
{{div col end}}

==References==
'''Notes'''
{{Reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
* {{cite book |last=Delage |first=Franck |title=Oradour: Ville martyre |trans-title=Oradour: Martyr City |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SPpnmgEACAAJ |series=Collection libération |year=1945 |location=Paris |oclc=560030269}}
* {{cite book |last=Delarue |first=Jacques |title=Trafics et crimes sous l'occupation |trans-title=Trafficking and crime under the occupation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9KeVnAEACAAJ |series=Livre de poche #3199 |year=1971 |publisher=Fayard |oclc=299915232}}
* {{cite book |language=fr |last1=Desourteaux |first1=André |last2=Hébras |first2=Robert |title=Oradour/Glane: notre village assassiné |trans-title=Oradour/Glane: our murdered village |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7ApnAAAAMAAJ |year=1998 |publisher=Les Chemins de la Mémoire |location=Montreuil-Bellay |isbn=978-2-909826-65-3 |oclc=264574092 |ref={{harvid|Desourteaux|1998}}}}
*Farmer, Sarah. ''Martyred Village: Commemorating the 1944 Massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane.'' University of California Press, 2000.
* {{cite book |language=fr |last=Fischbach |first=Bernard |title=Oradour: l'extermination |trans-title=Oradour: the extermination |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ShdcAAAACAAJ |year=2001 |publisher=Ronald Hirlé |location=Strasbourg |isbn=978-2-85369-226-7 |oclc=35079972}}
*Fouché, Jean-Jacques. ''Massacre At Oradour: France, 1944; Coming To Grips With Terror'', Northern Illinois University Press, 2004.
* {{cite book |language=fr |last1=Fouché |first1=Jean-Jacques |last2=Beaubatie |first2=Gilbert |title=Tulle, nouveaux regards sur les pendaisons et les événements de juin 1944 |trans-title=Tulle, new views on the hangings and the events of June 1944 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KdEWAQAAIAAJ |year=2008 |publisher=Souny |location=Saint-Paul  |isbn=978-2-84886-171-5 |oclc=259957737 |ref={{harvid|Fouché|2008}}}}
* {{cite book |language=fr |last=Hivernaud |first=Albert |title=Petite histoire d'Oradour-sur-Glane: de la préhistoire à nos jours |trans-title=A short history of Oradour-sur-Glane: from prehistory to today |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ndWmgEACAAJ |edition=7 |year=1988 |publisher=A. Bontemps |location=Limoges |oclc=864900129}}
* {{cite book |last=Mackness |first=Robin |title=Oradour Massacre and Aftermath |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DdncPXOy4-wC |year=1988 |publisher=A&C Black |isbn=978-1-4482-0838-8 |oclc=1069111830}}
* {{cite book |language=fr |author=Mouvement de Libération Nationale |title=Les Huns à Oradour-sur-Glane |trans-title=The Huns in Oradour-sur-Glane |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LYI6QwAACAAJ |year=1945 |publisher=Mouvement de Libération Nationale |location=Haute-Vienne |oclc=428066280 |ref={{harvid|MLN|1945}}}}
* {{cite book |last=Penaud |first=Guy |title=La "Das Reich": 2e SS Panzer-Division |trans-title='Das Reich': 2nd Panzer Division |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-sMWAQAAIAAJ |year=2005 |publisher=Lauze |location=Périgueux |isbn=978-2-912032-76-8 |oclc=238272571}}
* {{cite book |last=Weidinger |first=Otto |title=Tulle et Oradour, tragédie franco-allemande |trans-title=Tulle and Oradour, a Franco-German Tragedy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3u6xAQAACAAJ |year=1986 |publisher=Weidinger O |location=Aalen |translator-last=d'Yllias |translator-first=P. |orig-year=1st pub. Aalen (1985) "Tulle und Oradour : eine deutsch-französische Tragödie" |oclc=490423450 <!--in German:  923431244-->}}

== Further reading ==
* [[Max Hastings|Hastings, Max]] (1982) ''Das Reich: March of the Second SS Panzer Division Through France'' Henry Holt & Co. {{ISBN|0-03-057059-X}}
* Hastings, Max (1991) ''Das Reich: Resistance and the March of the Second SS Panzer Division Through France, June 1944'' Michael Joseph Ltd. {{ISBN|0-7181-2074-4}}
* Hawes, Douglas W. (2014) ''Oradour. Le verdict final'' (Oradour. The Final Verdict) SEUIL {{ISBN|978-2021115765}}
* [[Robert Hébras|Hébras, Robert]] (2003) ''Oradour-sur-Glane: The Tragedy hour by Hour'' Chemins {{ISBN|978-2847020069}}
* Pauchou, Guy and Pierre Masfrand (1970) ''Oradour-sur-Glane: vision d'épouvante'' (Orador-sur-Glane: a vision of horror) Charles Lavauzelle {{ISBN|978-2702503713}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Oradour-sur-Glane}}
* [http://www.oradour.info/ Study of 1944 reprisals at Oradour-sur-Glane (with picture gallery containing lists of casualties)]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110221083612/http://www.oradour.org/  Oradour-sur-Glane Memorial Center]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130617030221/http://heezee.blog4ever.s3.amazonaws.com/blogfichiers/63466/artfichier/63466090108081257.pdf Full list of casualties]

{{World War II}}
{{Liberation of France}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Oradour-sur-Glane massacre| ]]
[[Category:1944 murders in France]]
[[Category:Building and structure arson attacks in France]]
[[Category:Anti-French sentiment in Europe]]
[[Category:Collective punishment]]
[[Category:Arson in the 1940s]]
[[Category:Ghost towns in France]]
[[Category:June 1944 in Europe]]
[[Category:Massacres committed by Nazi Germany]]
[[Category:Massacres in 1944]]
[[Category:Massacres in France during World War II]]
[[Category:Child murder in France]]
[[Category:Nazi war crimes in France]]
[[Category:War crimes of the Waffen-SS]]
[[Category:Children killed in World War II by Nazi Germany]]
[[Category:1944 fires]]
[[Category:1940s fires in Europe]]
[[Category:Attacks on churches in France]]
[[Category:Church massacres in Europe]]
[[Category:Church arson in Europe]]
[[Category:Attacks on religious buildings and structures during World War II]]
[[Category:Attacks on buildings and structures in 1944]]