Sign at the entrance to the village of Oradour-sur-Glane in France. Credit: Ian Bancroft. All rights reserved.
On 10th June 1944, Nazi forces surrounded and then besieged the village of Oradour-sur-Glane in France, rounding-up and murdering 642 men, women and children. This was one of the largest mass murders by the occupying German forces. It was described by the perpetrators as an “exemplary action”; a surprise attack possibly designed to discourage would-be resistance fighters and their communities. The devastated village, near Limoges, became a permanent monument to the massacre thanks to a decree by French President, Charles de Gaulle, and today stands as a vivid reminder of the horrors of war.
