Dordogne france map november 2018 trial#

Madame Rouffanche gave her testimony at the Bordeaux trial in 1953, where she recounted the events she witnessed on June 10, 1944. After jumping from the church window, she was shot five times before crawling into a garden where she hid until she was rescued the following afternoon. Madame Marguerite Rouffanche, the sole survivor from the church, spent over a year recovering from her injuries. It is through the survivors’ testimonies that historians were able to piece together the events that occurred in the town. Only seven people survived the massacre – five men who were protected by fallen bodies, a woman who had escaped through a window of the church, and a child who had managed to escape before the Der Führer regiment began rounding up the townspeople. After setting fire to the church, the Germans searched for and killed anyone left hiding in the village and continued on by burning the rest of Oradour to the ground. Panic ensued within, and the SS then set fire to the building while shooting anyone who attempted to escape. Once locked inside, the troops first threw in grenades, injuring some while suffocating others with smoke. There were 240 women and 205 children that were forced into the village church. When a signal was given, the SS men opened fire with machine guns, murdering the men lined up before them. When nothing came of the demand for arms, the 197 men were divided into groups and forced into six separate barns located throughout the village. This charge was unsubstantiated, as no one in Oradour was known to have taken part in resistance activity. An officer announced to the men that he knew of hidden weapons and ammunition supplies, and that whoever was hiding them must step forward immediately. It was not long before the citizens realized that nothing about the exercise was routine.įirst, SS troops separated the men from the women and children. Most citizens were at first unconcerned, believing the Germans had arrived for a routine identification check. Armored cars gathered citizens who were out working in the fields and within an hour the Germans had rounded up every villager they could find in the market center. The town crier was sent to relay the message that all citizens, including the sick and elderly, were to report to the town market center. Around 2 p.m., under the command of SS-Sturmbannführer (Major) Adolf Diekmann, somewhere between 120 and 200 soldiers of the Panzer regiment Der Führer encircled the town blocking all entrances and exits. During the war, Oradour had not seen much action and townspeople saw few Germans passing through the city. On the morning of June 10, 1944, only four days after D-Day, the citizens of Oradour woke to what they assumed would be another normal day. Once orders were received, the Division began to move north towards Normandy. The Division also received orders to put down any maquis (guerilla bands of French Resistance fighters) while simultaneously intimidating the population and reasserting German control over central and southern France. These retaliations involved the murder of tens of thousands of Soviet civilians along with the torching of numerous villages.įollowing the June 6 Allied invasion in Normandy, Das Reich was assigned a new mission to support German forces fighting in northern France. During his time on the Eastern Front, Lammerding ordered several retaliations against Soviet citizens for real or perceived partisan actions. Das Reich was under the command of SS-Obergruppenführer (Major General) Heinz Bernhard Lammerding. Das Reich arrived in France as a reserve unit in January 1944 after spending two years on the Eastern Front, where they engaged in combat and were responsible for putting down Soviet partisan resistance. The group responsible for the heinous crimes committed at Oradour was the Der Führer regiment, a branch of the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich. The ruins of this village serve as a reminder of Nazi atrocities suffered by not only the French but also other civilian populations who came face-to-face with Nazi oppression. Today, tourists can visit the old town of Oradour where crumbling walls, cars, and other household items have been left untouched for the last 74 years. In 1944, the village was left in ruins after German Waffen-SS troops massacred 642 men, women, and children before burning the village to the ground. Before the war, Oradour-sur-Glane was a quiet, rural community in central France.

Dordogne france map november 2018