The tragedy which struck Oradour

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Oradour sur Glane is what the English call "in the back of beyond"; or Americans, "in a backwater". The region saw practically no German activity during the whole of the occupation of France in World War 2 and there was no Resistance activity either, as there were no Germans to "resist". The only time the citizens of Oradour sur Glane saw a German was when one stopped of for a meal in the cafe or restaurant. So it was with curiosity the locals greeted a company of SS Soldiers who arrived in the village on a hot, quiet, Saturday afternoon in June 1944. The Allies were already ashore in the north, but here in the south west of France nothing had changed for years and showed no signs of doing so, until now. Some of the villagers got a little worried and ran off and hid themselves away but, in the main, most just stood and watched. Within a couple of hours, 642 men, women and children would lie dead amongst the ashes of a once peaceful village. The few that did survive had no idea why their village had been singled out for such savage "retribution", in fact many people still do not know to this day. Since I placed this page online I, like most others, believed it was in retaliation for Resistance activity and the kidnapping and murder of a German Major. Only the previous day, 99 men had been publicly hanged in Tulles in retaliation for Resistance activity. The Germans made no secret of it - indeed, they broadcast it to deter further Resistance Fighters from attacking the Germans. But, in the case of Oradour, they tried from the start to hush it up. After the massacre, they ordered the Gestapo to stop anybody from getting anywhere near to the village. So, why the secrecy?

Like a lot of incidents of World War 2, this is shrouded in controversy and conjecture. Was it Resistance retribution or the result of an arguement between a villager and a German officer? (See below - Possible Reason). The Nazi Occupying Forces in the shape of a Regiment of the "Das Reich" Division, entered Oradour Sur Glane on the 10 June 1944 and butchered all the menfolk. The women and children were herded into the town church and allegedly set fire to the church, burning alive all inside, approx 400 people. Later scientific evidence suggested that the flaming intensity of the fire was too hot to have been caused by "piling timber against the doors and lighting it". It is thought that possibly the French Resistance had used the Church as a weapons depository, including explosives and that this is what caused the inferno. What ignited the fire? Did the Nazi's deliberately burn these people alive? Even allowing for the barbaric nature of these people, this seems a little bit too hard to stomach. It would have made sense, even with the Normandy beachheads only 4 days old, to transport these people to labour camps or whatever, but not to incinerate them so barbarically. The French will of course defer to the commonly held belief that what they say, their version, is the truth. Naturally this is a very normal reasoning. Is it clouded by outrage, determination to find guilt where it is supposedly apparent? Did the Resistance use the Church as a weapons dump? There are many sites on the web that refer to Oradour Sur Glane; some of which are linked below. Below is also a full eye witness account of this day. Thanks also to an ex Army friend of mine, Paul Robinson, who provided me with photo's.

The SS encircled the village and assembled all of the population, including some visitors, for what at first appeared to be a routine identity check. But, once it had been ensured that everyone was accounted for and that there would be no witnesses of what was going to happen, all of the villagers were separated and locked away: the 450 women and children in the small stone church, the 200+ men in various barns and garages throughout the village. In the inevitable conclusion, after what must have been an agonising wait, the assembled villagers were massacred by guns and grenades before their buildings were set on fire. After most - but not all - had been killed, the Germans proceeded to demolish every building in the village, including those in which some of the victims still remained alive, by explosives and fire.

Whatever the plans, some of the villagers did manage to escape, five men from one of the barns and one lone woman from the church, to witness what had happened. By nightfall that day, after the SS had departed, the entire village was in ruins and all the remaining population - men, women and children - lay dead, still locked inside burning barns and the church.

ORADOUR-SUR-GLANE

(Central France. June 10, 1944) On their 450 mile drive from the south of France to the Normandy invasion area, the 2nd SS Panzer Division 'Das Reich' (15,000 men aboard 1,400 vehicles, including 209 tanks) under the command of SS General Lammerding, arrived at the small town of St. Junien (12 miles from Oradour). Following many encounters with the local Maquis, they marched to Oradour (the excuse used was that they believed the town to hold large stocks of weapons and ammunition for the Maquis) and about 2pm surrounded the village ordering all inhabitants to parade in the market square. (This is what was originally believed) Women and children were separated and locked up in the local church. The men were herded in groups into local garages and barns and then shot, their bodies were covered with straw and set on fire. The 452 women and children in the church were then killed by grenades lobbed in through the windows. The church was then set on fire after a series of explosions. Incredibly, one woman, Mme Rouffanche, escaped by jumping through a window, she was the only witness to the carnage in the church. Unspeakable atrocities were committed throughout the village, but five men managed to escape. The world heard of the massacre nine years later when some of those responsible were brought to trial. In 1953 a French Military Court established that 642 people (245 women, 207 children and 190 men) had perished. The commander of the SS unit at Oradour was thirty-two year old SS Sturmbannführer (Major) Otto Diekmann. He was later killed in action in the Normandy battle area. Twenty other members of his company were sentenced to death but later their sentences were commuted to terms of imprisonment. All were released by 1959. SS General Lammerding died peacefully at his home in Germany on the 13th. of January, 1971. Today, the village of Oradour-sur-Glane stands in ruins, just as the SS left it.

Since writing the above I have found out the some of the Germans involved were captured by the Resistance prior to this and, peeping out of the side of the vehicle they were in, One, a Lt Gerlach, saw a sign on the road which read Oradour Sur Glane, which was where, he thought, he was taken. A Major Kampfe was captured and executed by the Maquis. The fact was reported to his superiors. Also, on a different tack, the same officer was not taken to Oradour at all but another nearby village. A survivor of the massacre, Robert Hebras, verifies that Oradour had no Resistance activity and certainly a half naked Lt Gerlach was not in Oradour on 9 June 1944. Apparently the Germans got the wrong village. I have just come into possession of a book, "Oradour - Massacre & Aftermath" written by Robin Mackness (c) 1988. It claims to have uncovered the real truth. We shall see? In doing research for items, I have come across conflicting versions so often its unreal! So I reserve judgement for now. Some people email me to say that a well documented historical event never even happened, it takes all sorts I suppose. The author does state quite clearly in his book that there is no way he can 100% prove Raoul's story, unless someone else comes forward BUT there are so many facts mixed up in Raoul's narrative that it is almost certainly quite true. It does fit in with the behaviour of the SS, of manic Major Dickmann, the events and what was said at Oradour. It all fits together like a jigsaw puzzle, no pieces appear to be missing.

Back to the book. Oradour had no strategic nor tactical advantages to either the Germans nor the Allies. Until now it had been a tiny dot on a large map of France and was passed by with hardly a glance. It was really quite simple - nothing ever happened in Oradour. Das Reich SS Regiment recruited mainly from the region of Alsace, a region of France annexed by Germany and many of the boys, men, in the Regiment would have French origins. Possibly one reason why many French people are still reluctant to mention Oradour, shame perhaps? After the war, bitter recriminations erupted, mainly between Frenchman and Frenchman. The occupation of France divided the country in more ways than physical boundaries, it divided neighbours and friends. Many actively supported the Nazi's, others immediately looked for ways to fight them. I would guess that the French political system of far right and far left became even more so, the far left doing the majority of Resistance work. Over time, witness reports become blurred with the telling and stories changed over the years. The witness becomes convinced, not through their own fault, that events took place that didn't actually happen. Its a mind thing, not on the conscious level. The most accurate account of what took place is quite possible a Report published by the French on 17th December 1945 entitled Glimpse of Hell, or Horror "Vision d'Epouvante". The witness recollections were still vivid and clear in the mind. Unfortunately, for accuracies sake, the author depends upon details given by people who wish to remain anonymous and in the case of the main source, now dead. This could be construed as possibly giving way to fanciful conjecture, even inventiveness of the narrative due to the fact there is nobody who could or will come forward and say "But I did not say that" or "This is untrue, I was there". However, at this moment in time I prefer to believe that the author stumbled upon the "truth" by accident in the course of a dealing that maybe he should not have been involved in, causing his incarceration in a French jail. His source "Raoul" was apparently involved in dodgy dealing of gold shipments to Switzerland, against French law, and highly punishable. When he was due to act as a courier for this shipment, part of the journey, he got suspicious and demanded the full story of how this "Raoul" came into possession of the gold, and Oradour entered the conversation.

Raoul grew up in Leipzig, son of a wealthy jeweller who had married a Jewish woman. Anti semitism was creeping like a cancer through the streets and a young Raoul saw his near naked beautiful sister taken by the mob for "corrective training" never to be seen again. The family moved to Alsace and there they changed name. By 1938 Alsace was too close to Germany for comfort and they moved to Toulouse and settled in Valence. The area was thick with refugees, mainly from the Spanish Civil War. After his sisters disappearance Raoul never discovered till much later the stress his parents were under. He never knew what his father did as business in France, and never thought to ask. With the war and the German march into France, Toulouse became part of Vichy. His family were comfortably off, and always seemed to have enough of everything. To avoid labour "press gangs" from the vichy Police, Raoul was sent to Pau, near Spain and here he met his wife Janine. He drifted into the Resistance. With his Jewish parentage, and the Germans rounding up labour for work in German factories, Raoul went to ground and in 1944 was selected for sabotage training in preparation for the expected invasion. After training he arrived at a rendevous near Villeneuve sur Lot and met two Englishmen. One took him to one side and told him that an SS Panzer division was due to arrive in Toulouse. When the invasion came, the Resistance's task was to harass this SS Unit and slow its probable progress northwards. This knowledge was yet another piece of valuable information gleaned from the Enigma code breakers at Bletchley Park. The British knew even before the Das Reich Regiment. A huge operation was in progress and Raoul was only a tiny part, the whole being a massive headache to the Germans. He found out that his parents had been denounced and despatched to concentration camps in Germany. He made sure that the man died, very slowly, and afterwards he felt physically sick, the young man he had just killed had been a neighbour and they had travelled to school together.

On a warm evening on the last day of May 1944 the long awaited radio message arrived and they knew the invasion was imminent. Raoul made his way north to his designated "area", a remote area near Siorac. Apparently every member of the village was Resistance in one form or another. On arrival at a safe house near Chaillac, Raoul was assigned 6 men, rather no more than boys, being around 16 years of age. He was told that the Allies had landed in Normandy. Amid great excitement he also learnt that the Das Reich Division was also on the move, northwards, on roads, as the rail links had been sabotaged.

On Thursday 8th June Raoul was told his targets. A site just north of Nieul on the Limoge - Ballec road, being a rail bridge and the other, a section of road. Friday 9th June Raoul and his "men" were preparing to leave when the quiet of Chaillac was disturbed by the rumble of heavy engines as a huge convoy of SS trucks and half tracks roared down the hill into St Julien, forcing Raoul to rethink his tactics. He decided to move out that night. Major Dickmann jad received orders to rejoin 1st Bn Das Reich Regiment and was to proceed to St Julien. Partisans, 2 days previous, had bombed an important railway viaduct, botching the job, but ensuring that it was too dangerous for trains to traverse it. Passengers had to dismount at one side, cross by foot, and reboard a train waiting on the other. Amongst one group of passengers were 10 German soldiers and they were ambushed, 2 soldiers were killed.

The Commander of Das Reich division, General Heinz Lammerding, had his signature on several documents authorising "anti partisan" activities for the soldiers. This usually meant the destruction of villages and their occupants. This had been achieved when the Division was based in Russia. The results had been enormously destructive. Indeed, both sides in Russia took prisoners, tortured them and then had them killed - usually within site of the other side. In March 1944, the Das Reich Division had lost 15,000 men and the remnants had been sent to springtime France to regroup and recover strength. Only 2500 soldiers arrived in France. Most of the new recruits came from the Alsace region of Germany, which had been France before the war. Young men who had grown up French had found themselves as Germans since Germany had annexed Alsace. They were now being recruited into the German Armies.

IN March, a company of soldiers led by a Major Kampfe, were out north of Montauban, terrorising the locals, trying to scare them into not daring to assist the Resistance. During wholesale looting they came across several bars of gold. These were handed over th General Lammerding who already possessed some Reichbank bars, held by him, in trust. This terror tactic was known as Ratissage and in early May 1944, they were stepped up. The most appaling atrocities were committed by the "old" regulars as a way of whipping up the Alsace soldiers and giving them a taste of action and the stomach for killing. A grandfather and his 2 year old grandchild were tossed into the flames of a burning house. A father pleaded with the Germans to allow him to hug his 15 year old son, then they were shot by a single bullet by a laughing SS soldier. An 80 year old woman, frightened by the soldiers discharged a shotgun in her terror. She and 2 nieces were publicly hung in front of the town, their bodies then flung into the river. Systematic looting went on, all over the countryside. Using Resistance activity as a pretext for all of this, the truth was very different.

Lammerding was expecting a landing in the Bordeaux region. He thought Normandy, when it occurred, was a diversion. By now he had amassed 600 kilos of gold, nearly a half ton. But what to do with it? They decided it would travel north with them, crated and labelled as "records". Flat cars were in use to move the 300 Panzers, low level transporters. An Englishman, with two incredibly brave French school girls aged 14 and 16, drained the oil out of all the axles and replaced it with abrasive paste specially flown in by the RAF. Every single flat car, without exception, seized up. Not only was this an incredible piece of sabotage, but the oil had been kept and sold on the Black Market! The nearest railhead for the division to get to was, ominously, Limoge. The sabotage also had a knock on effect, moving 300 tanks by road used up vital fuel. There were also 1400 other vehicles including heavy armour, 15000 men and equipment. And the Maquis were out there waiting. By Thurs 8th June the division was spread out over hundreds of square miles. 60% of the Panzers had become unoperational, not battle ready and a promised fuel train was bombed and destroyed by the RAF.

Nearby, in Tulle, 17 Maquis had taken the town from 139 Garrison troops. But they had murdered 40 prisoners in cold blood. That same night, the SS retook the town with the loss of 3 men. Came the dawn, came the reckoning. 99 townspeople were hanged from lamp-posts. There would have been many more but the SS ran out of rope! 101 were deported to Germany, most never came back. Lammerding sat in a cafe drinking wine whilst the executions took place around him. They then left and took the road to Limoge, 80kms away. He was reluctant to move his precious gold through some heavily wooded region and detailed Dickmann to roganise an alternative route - directly towards Raoul and his men making their way towards their targets. At midnight, the gold left on the Limoge- Bellac road. The scene was set and the SS and Raoul marched onwards towards their respective destinies. Itwas now the night of Friday 9th June 1944.

The sounds of tracks on the road reached the ears of Raoul and his party. Raoul ordered them NOT to attack the small convoy under any circumstances, reminding them of their intended, more important target at Nieul. As the vehicles passed by the hidden Maquis, one of the youths suddenly jumped up and tossed a grenade into the passing car, which erupted in a ball of flame. Chaos ensued. Raoul got a grenade out and lobbed it through the window of the truck carrying the "records". Due to the inability of the youths to carry out orders it was a classic example of how NOT to set up an ambush. Some of the surviving soldiers ran for it, and Raoul found three wounded in the truck, he killed them with a burst of sten gun fire. The youths were dead except one, whose head was nearly severed, Raoul cradled him as he died in his arms. The idiot who could not obey orders was found, with scarcely a mark on him. He was possibly killed by blast. Raoul then found the gold. He saw the Reichbank mark on some of the bars, reminding him that he had once been German. The night was deathly still. With a massive effort Raoul buried the gold, in 30 small but heavy boxes, by the side of the road, carefully covering it up with turf. The 6 dead Frenchmen and the remains of the Germans were torched in the vehicles, and he left the scene.

Saturday morning at 0600 hrs, Major Dickmann was woken up by an aide and informed that he was to ring Lammerding immediately. Being woken up, lack of sleep and a difficult phone service frayed Dickmann's temper to anger. When he did speak to the General, all that was said was that he was to get to Limoge within the hour and the phone was slammed down. The meeting was overheard by an SS telephonist to be a noisy one. The two officers scremaed and shouted at each other. The previous day Major Kapfe had been kidnapped by the Maquis returning from a raid and patrols had been out all night searching. It was on one of these patrols, south of Limoge, that they arrested Violet Szabo, a beautiful British agent, her fate was not pleasant. The news of Kampfe's disappearance only added to Dickmann's fury. Kampfe had been kidnapped by the same group that had just blown up a bridge at Brignac. He was taken to the village of Cheissoux, a few kilometres east of St Leonard, and it was here he disppeared. His grave marked "Soldat Allermand" was later to be shown to the author by the man who claimed to have buried him.

During the course of the heated debate, one or the other of the officers had placed a finger on a map, on Oradour, and claimed that the missing gold must be there. It was only 4 kilometres away from the ambush site. Dickmann was given his orders - find the gold by 2000 hrs that night and report back to the General. Kampfe's kidnapping was only an excuse, they wanted the gold back. A meeting then took place which probably decided the fate of the village there and then. Dickmann met with a Lieutenant Gerlach, who had also been kidnapped, but had escaped in only his underwear. Gerlach is supposed to have told Dickmann that Oradour was one of the villages he had been taken too. Dickmann saw Oradour as a Resistance hotbed, expecting a pitched battle maybe.

Gerlach named Oradour in testimony he gave to a Bordeaux tribunal in 1953. But survivor Robert Hebras categorically states that NO resistance activity took place in Oradour on the Friday and certainly no german truck containing a near naked German officer went there. Gerlach had just made a very tragic mistake. Kampfe had been kidnapped near to Oradour sur Vayre, but certainly died in or near Cheissoux. Dickmann also knew that Kampfe's car had been found, 50 kms away from Oradour sur Glane, twice the distance from the "other" Oradour. Dickmann was under orders to either free the prisoner or take hostages. It is doubtful whether the latter even crossed his mind. The SS never acted without reason, Raoul's story to Robin Mackness provides the final vital clues as to why the village was not only exterminated and razed to the ground but why the SS and the Gestapo went to great pains to stop anyone approaching the area, to cover it up. The SS convoy assembled at 1330 hrs. 120 men in 2 half tracked lorries, 8 trucks, a motorcycle and dickmann's car, a Citroen 2CV. Lt Lange was Dickmann's driver and they had a radio set, which Dickmann used on several occasions as they drove to Oradour.

Dickmann stopped at the site of the previous nights ambush and studied the scene. Nothing was left, a few helmets, weapons, burnt bodies. No sign of the gold of course. As Dickmann had taken quite a while in preparation for this there is little doubt he knew exactly what he was to do. His men were frightened of him, seeming to be in a "demented fury". He issued written instructions, another unusual occurrence, as orders for this sort of operation were usually verbal only. He wanted no mistakes. Heinz Barth, an NCO, remarked "You will see blood flow today, and we will find out what the Alsatians are made of". He was later sentenced to life in 1953 in Bordeaux. Dickmann left the scene and the convoy proceeded to the wrong Oradour!

As they approached the area, soldiers went into farms on the southern approach and ordered all personnel into the trucks, including children and babies. As they left the farms they looked back to see them being torched and blown up, nobody was coming home to these farms, again. Oradour was listed as having 254 buildings, more like a small town. 2 hotels and about 24 shops. One of the trucks made its way directly through the village and blocked off the exit on the other side. Troops disembarked from the trucks and ran to pre determined positions. The people were obviously alarmed but nobody panicked, after all, they had done nothing wrong! Oradour was crowded that hot, sunny Saturday afternoon. The normal population of 330 was swollen to about 650 with people in from surrounding farms for the weekly tobacco issue and 30 refugees from the Spanish Civil War were resident also. It was also medical check time at the schools, with 106 in the girls school, 64 in the boys school and refugee children from Lorraine numbering 44. A white flare was ignited in the main street, the signal that the area was sealed off. Soldiers spread out though the village smashing in doors. They found old people too ill to move, many were shot as they were found, others kicked and rifle butted into the street. Anyone running off was easily picked off.

By 1440 hrs the entire population was assembled in the Square, 650 people. Dickmann was getting irritated, he only had just over 4 hours left to find the gold and then leave for Limoge. He informed those present, via two French interpreters, that they were to be searched for weapons and required 30 hostages. The mayor said they they had no weapons in the village and volunteered himself as hostage. The SS then segregated the women and children from the men and marched them off in the direction of the church, ordering that if any of the men turned to watch the procession they would be shot. One of the Alsace soldiers was visibly upset at the sight of the children and a family hiding in a cellar heard the march of the children's clogged feet as "drums of death". They were all crammed into the church.

There were now about 200 men in the Square, covered by SS troops. The men were split into several barns. Dickmann was by now losing his temper, things were taking too long. He nodded to Captain Kahn who drew his pistol and fired a single shot into the air. This was the signal for the massacre to begin. THe SS threw open the barn doors and began firing and shouting loudly. 30 seconds later the firing petered out. At the church a large strange box was carried into the church and three fuses were lit, it began to pour out acrid fumes but was taking too long so that the soldiers lobbed grenades into the Nave and raked the church with machine gun fire. the fumes drove them out of the door so they continued to lob grenades in through the windows. Inside was a blazing inferno. One SS Lt, Knug, was killed by falling masonry. When the SS had opened fire at the barns, aim was deliberately kept low, taking most of the victims in the legs. Dickmann arrived and entered a barn, not more than a few were already dead, obviously well planned. An old man was lying by the wall, crying for his wife. Dickmann, with theatrical aplomb, waited whilst eyes turned to him, then he shot the old man though an eye. He questioned men for 10 minutes then shot each one and stormed out of the barn, ordering the men to torch them all. The screams of the dying echoed above the roar of the flames.

The young man with the impetuosity at the ambush site, who could not obey an order, the German Lieutenant who got the wrong village, the mysterious Raoul, who took the gold, the major with a terrible temper. A veritable catalogue of occurrences that resulted in a destruction beyond comprehension. On the next page I have printed the eye witness account.

The following images were taken by a Dutch policeman and were kindly sent to me on a CD. Gijs van den Bor is his name. The same gentleman has made a video montage of this massacre which can be viewed by clicking here for the Dutch Version and clicking here for the English version. Ensure you have at least Windows Media Player on your pc. These images and video's are copyright. Do not copy them. They belong to a policeman, be warned! Gijs has also sent me a clip from a German tv programme on Oradour showing Robert Hebras & Marcel Darthout, two survivors, talking, with the addition of some images. However, its in German. Its Roberts story which appears here, on page 2.

During the course of my research, I come across many sites. Some of which are listed below:




















and so the collection is complete and online. My thanks to Gijs van den Bor Copyright © Gijs van den Bor 2005 Images & Video http://www.gijsvandenbor.nl



			(c) Robinson