The French Village Annihilated by The SS (WW2 Documentary)
In June 1944 the notorious 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich got orders to head at full speed to Normandy to repel the allied invasion. Their journey north was plagued by problems, not least repeated attacks by the French resistance. In reprisal they committed a series of horrific war crimes which ultimately led to the destruction of almost the entire population of Oradour-Sur-Glane. This is that story.
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Written Sources:
• Michael Williams’ Oradour website. An excellent resource covering events in great details: oradour.info/
• Centre De La Memoire (Official Oradour Website): www.oradour.org/
• R. Hebras, Oradour-Sur-Glane, the Tragedy Hour by Hour (1994)
• G. Pauchou & D. Masfrand, Oradour-Sur-Glane, A Vision of Horror (1970)
• R. Pike, Silent Village, Life and Death in Occupied France (2021)
• H.Watts, One Day at Oradour (2014)
• G. Mouret, Oradour: Li Crime, L Proces (French Language) (2019 Edition)
• J. Lucas, Das Reich, The Military Role of the 2nd SS Division (1999)
Video Sources:
• Interview with R. Hebras (2023) (French Language) • Robert Hébras raconte
• Interview with J.M. Darthout (2020) (French Language) mon-e-college.loiret.fr/POD/v...
• Interview with M. Rouffranche (1969) (French Language) www.ina.fr/ina-eclaire-actu/v...
General Archive Sources:
• Imperial War Museum Archives (IWMA)
• US National Archives (NARA)
• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM)
• Bundesarchiv (German National Archives)
• National Archives NextGen Catalog
• L’Agence France Presse
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• Patreon: / battleguide
• Twitter: / battleguidevt
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Credits:
• Research/Script & Narration: Dan Hill
• Editor: Shane Greer
• Thumbnail Design: Linus Klassen
• 3D Mapping: Clear Breeze Consulting: www.clearbreezeconsulting.com/
• Music & Sound Effects: Envato Elements
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I have been here, no birds can be heard here its void of all sound my wife just wept and that was before we experienced everything , young people need to touch these places to truly understand the horror of war. Its not like a game on a computer
I visited many years ago. A truly moving experience. As Roger says it's eerily silent. In the 5 minutes or so it took to walk back to the car nobody in our party spoke!
~ Lest We Forget ~
Try to make documentary about Kragujevac massacre in 1941. Brutal story of small town in Sebia unknown in west. Thank you for making this videos. NEVER FORGET
@@tapasdechance7473 Starting with you.
"This is the village of Oradour-Sur-Glane. Nobody lives here anymore" -- literally the opening words of the MOST authoritative documentary series on WWII - "The World at War"
Yes, I remember that truly GREAT series. My father and I watched it every Sunday night. And I remember that section on Oradour. It was awful but World at War handled it magnificently.
They built a new town, next to oradour
It is somewhat outdated having been made in the 1970s, before the Soviet Union was dismantled. Definitely the most iconic WW2 series from west though.
I visited this place with my wife and son in 1978. There was a sign I couldn't bring myself to translate for my wife as I couldn't speak. The silence and peace of the ruins can't obliterate the sense of horror of what was done to ordinary people.
Last survivor died February 2023. The brutality of the Warren SS is astonishing. Thank you for this video.
Partisans aré forbbiden in the war.
My French teacher lost her older sister in Oradour on that day. All she could find to remember her by was a scorched piece of the blue coat her sister was wearing, and on every jacket or coat my teacher wore she had sewn a small blue square of that material on the lapel. We were curious as to why that was, and one day a boy asked... The reason was given. along with a history and philosophy lesson which left us extremely moved and respectful. Needless to say there was never a need for the question to be asked or the reason given again for as long as we or the teacher stayed at the school... EVERY PUPIL KNEW... and so it is I am sure wherever that teacher went, and whichever school she taught at. I am now in my 70s and therefore I think the teacher will have met her sister again... but none of us have forgotten the blue squares I am sure. Like me... many will have one day gone to visit the French village near Limoges... Lest we forget...
That's a moving story. Wow.
I got a screenshot of your extremely moving comment. What a testimony to her sister’s memory, and testimony to all the people who lost everything to the brutality of this unforgettable time. God bless you and thank you for sharing this story.
@@mynamedoesntmatter8652 If only the world had learnt from such unforgettable and unforgivable episodes! The brutality is still here and rising all around despite the cruel and shameful lessons of History...
As a Limoges resident I would like to say that this was superbly narrated and the respect shown to the subject is quite evident. The digitally reconstituted village was quite moving. Very well done and thank you for remembering.
You were a survivor of this massacre? How did you survive sorry I'm just curious since it sounded like the nazi soldiers left no stone unturned by even burning the village down. I am very curious about history and I never heard about this horrible incident and like to hear stories from those of the time if possible. Condolences for your losses!
im guessing this is a french tv station production and not the channel owners handiwork
😂😂😂😂😂 you’re silly
@@KazukoLight he's not a survivor. He lives nearby in Limoges and is familiar with the place.
@@riadyl3311 seriously?!
Thank you for reporting about this sad and often forgotten moment of history. I grew up in Limoges, not far from Oradour sur Glane, and I visited the place many times as part of school trips. But more tragically, my grand mother sister died in the church with her 7 year old son, while her husband was killed in the Milord Barn. The pain was still there until my grand mother passed away in 2004. I recommend to everyone to visit the site as it’s an eternal reminder of the horrors of war. There is a bunker, next to the preserved village, where artefacts from that terrible day are exposed, frozen in time, like bullet-riddled baby strollers, watches melted and frozen at the time of the massacre and many more personal and deeply emotional items. Let’s not forget. Peace everyone.
So sorry 😢. .my dad flew US bomber in Italy. The innocent died too. His parents German immigrants here. ❤
Thanks so much for sharing this - such horrible things to have carried through your family’s journey, through your own journey. Did the SS mistake the village for another?
@@peopleofconcience thank you Paul. Actually, it was bad luck. They first stopped at another village, Vigeois, but as the mayor was fluent in German, they moved on to Oradour… Anyway, they had already set they mind on annihilating a village as one of their officer was killed by the resistance. They started by hanging 98 men and one woman in Tulle. Sadly, as mentioned in this video, this happened all around Europe… War is evil.
Muslims do not believe in peace (,read the Quran)..how do you get peace with people who do not want peace with you?...I am listening🤨
Please do a similar story video on Liddice.
I was born in Tulle, the town where the 99 men were hanged (one of the 100 escaped jumping into the Correze river but was shot), and I visited Oradour. in somtimes in the late 80s early 90s (did not rememeber, I must have been 6 or 7 years old, the town of tulle organized a reconstitution with mannequin of the hanged, I did not well understood but I still remember it. There is still a memory garden outside of the town, beautiful. My grand uncle fought in the battle of Tulle against the german garrison, and they fled when the SS Div came; he has told me a few time about this before his death. My grand ftaher was working in a field south of oradour the day before the massacre, and he has seen the vehicles passing, everyone hiding because nobody knew what they can do, and my great grandparents were hiding jews. What a sad period, books have been written, but I had already bring my children to visit Oradour after 10 years old, I think "Souviens Toi", remember, is the most important thing there
"Down this road on a summer day in 1944, the soldiers came. Nobody lives here now. They stayed only a few hours. When they had gone, the community, which had lived for a thousand years, was dead. This is Oradour-sur-Glane, in France." Laurence Olivier opening the first episode of "The World at War".
Probably the best series on British television. Ever.
@@gazza2933It really is.
Partisans aré forbbiden in war.
I visited Oradour more than 30 years ago...I was a kid in my late teens...the experience wasn't lost on me...haunting place...especially the church where so many innocent children were murdered...how could anyone do this?
because they knew the history books would be rewritten and that they would get away with it.
Sadly to this day the human race is still capable of these terrible atrocities, one needs only to look at Syria or perhaps one or two of the African countries to name just a few
@@wobby1516 agreed
The Evil SS the work of the Devil 👿 The perpetrators who were captured and convicted should have been shot! to put these evil pigs in prison was a travesty! 😡
Well its not uncommon, when Reinhard Heydrich the 3rd most powerful man in the nazis was assassinated in Prague, the town of lidice was completely flattened and the children were sent to nazi Germany and the parents of the children were murdered, this crime was a reprisal for the assassination of Heydrich..
I have visited Oradour-Sur-Glane. I arrived early on a Sunday morning, and found myself alone for quite some time, just wandering from house to house, street to street. There is a sign at the entrance that says "SILENCE." Oradour-Sur-Glane is one of the saddest places you will ever visit.
I visited Oradour with 2 friends about 4 years ago. We walked round almost in silence thinking of the people, families, children who died there. There is no valid justification and never will be. These place and others must be remembered and we must remember them every time an army seeks to invade another country. The actions of the SS were repellent, evil, but sadly the same is still happening today in Europe and around the world. We need to learn.
I visited the village today with my wife. God rest their souls.
I knew this story from my French mother, a child during WW2. Thank God for the English Channel and Spitfires.
I have visited this village , I found it a very sombre experience. Its a time for reflection on those that make war .🇬🇧
I am French and Oradour is still a painful memory for me, however I support the friendship with German peoples because they made a remarkable collective work on their past that should inspire other folks including French.
As it was,even after the war,Germans were bombing,still bombing elsewhere 2nd war may ended forUK but war hadnt ended,as history says tells,what went down,just as despicable,the others involved,dads great city,story untold truths not being told, &wasntGermans who assassinated my g.pa,nor who targeted my dad,forced exile just bc his titles,not bc done wrongs,the hidden stories,abuses still behind the scene,politics lies deceit.Born into it so i born of no country when born a exile,told it,the cruelty of humans still,&humans who dont want the truth be,the story deserves needs to be told.Its amazing how being silenced really is still very real,for the very few. This is such a sad awful story&no lessons learnt,as we watch hear in the now, still there is these murderous vile,in this world,who go in against Ukraine. The innocent civilians&includes many children,being killed for bc its like just a blood sport for some who have no empathy in them, towards other humans.
🙌 👏 🙏 🤝 👍 most of the poor german folks were obedient victims. One innocent single joke about the "Fueher" -> K Z !!!
Germany knows it’s past, that’s why they say it out loud, so no other country or people go this route. To bad ruzzia can’t get truths.
Having visited this village around ten years ago was an incredibly sobering experience. Standing in the doorway to the church, I cried. I had my young son at my side, and I couldn't imagine the horror that befell these inhabitants.
I am British and like in a a large town near Oradour-Sur-Glane, I have visited this French nation monument one it was so upsetting I have not been back for a second visit. Nothing has been removed.
The last survivor of the Oradour massacre, Robert Hebras, passed in February of this year, age 97. God rest his soul.
In 1989 I was touring in France with my wife and three very young children. We were on our way to Limoges when we came across Oradour-sur-Glane, entirely by accident. We did not know anything about this village or its history but we stopped and walked the street of ruins, and learnt what had occurred there in 1944. It was shocking of course, and for our young children a lesson from the past which sadly can still be applied to the present as we see what Russia has done in places like Bucha in Ukraine. As I write this in 2023, I have never forgotten the day in 1989 that we spent walking in the ruined village and visiting the cemetery nearby, and grieving for all those lovely and innocent people whose lives were so suddenly and brutally ended.
All the deaths are horrible but I can't even wrap my head around the children. Your content is amazing and valuable.
Yes, its horrific Phil - thanks for taking the time to watch.
I stopped the video at the picture of kids and the mention of kills at the very start....I'll watch it later when I will be ready to hear all that.......... Kids death bleeds my heart....
Heart breaking. The atrocities. And so many children. Thank you for this memorial video
Another village that suffered this fate was Lidice, Czechoslovakia. You can that story on KZhead also.
I visited when I was 14yrs old, I am now 48yrs old yet remember it like yesterday. Especially the pram, the car and the cemetery. I try to tell people about it but they simply don’t understand. Rest in eternal peace sweet people 😢
I lived 25 minutes from Oradour went there many times to show visitors who came to visit me ,and every time just couldn’t believe that men could do such a terrible terrible thing .
I really like that you bring up these awful things without making it a sensational thing about it, the story itself is so powerfull! I discovered your channel a couple month ago and really liked it, subscribed immidiately, then forgot about it, saw some clip that came up on my feed yesterday from you. Watched it and wanted to subscribe, because it was so well made and saw that I allready subscribed! Anyway you own me a night of sleep because I more or less watched all your videos which missed and got to sleep about 3:00... This clip is scary and really good, it is something that our schoolchildren ought to watch and understand what happened during WW2! Keep up the good work you're doing! 👍
The television series The world at war, starts the premier episode in the village and ends the last episode with images of the village. The voice of Laurence Olivier, haunts me fifty years later.
I went there a few years ago .. saw the bicycle and the car and the pram in the church. it was heartbreaking and never to be forgotten. The part that was most hurtful were the names of many villagers on their house and their profession. Made it all so real rather than imaginitive. This was very upsetting but thank you for keeping this alive. Never forget.
I visited this village with a Dutch school group about 15 years ago. I expected the teens to not understand the significance of what they were viewing. Instead, the total impact of it all fell down upon my formally laughing students. The ride back to Limoges was in total silence. The horrors of war had seized them all. I will never forget this village and the horrible actions of the Germans.
Dumb take. Next you'll want to expell chimpanzees from the Animal Kingdom.
And did you ever take them to Deir Yassin?
@@henryb160 Would you like a side of fries with your whataboutism, Adolf?
“ The day the soldiers came” see the classic World At War tv series, narrated by Laurence Olivier , about this village..
Still my favorite documentary.🇦🇺
I think it's clear that the narrator of this video has also watched The World at War series and been influenced by Olivier's narration.
A total disgrace
Starts with it finishes with it, I’ve been there it’s moving!
a French man was recently apprehended in Scotland and extradited to France and jail. his purported crime? he didn't just question this narrative so sacred to the French, he had plenty of evidence. So he's in jail awaiting trial.
There was no bravery in the German actions at Oradour-Sur-Glane, only the villagers showed that. The German soldiers and their leaders, proved how cowardly they were, when faced with unarmed men, woman, children and babies they tortured and murdered the lot, but for a handful that survived. German soldiers replaced bravery, with senseless bastardry. This video brought me to tears.
I visited this village last summer, it's heartbreaking. There are photographs inside the museum of the citizens that were murdered, people who were just living their lives. The village and museum area are well kept, and I'm glad the area is preserved so history can be remembered. Peace to all that died here and to their families.
Thank you for this informative and very respectful film. I visited Oradour in the early 1970’s whilst on a touring holiday in France and it left an impression on me that lasts to this day. I managed the walk through the village,stopping respectfully at the varying sites of the barbaric murders, until I arrived at the cemetery. It was the fact that the dates of death on the gravestones were all the same just set me off and I shed many a tear over them.
Very importantly reminds us that the SS Panzer Division responsible were just beasts We should always remember the inhabitants of Oradour-Sur-Glane. A story well told of a Crime against humanity never to be forgotten.
Thank you for keeping this horror alive so that history does not repeat itself.
You think this does not still happen? It happens in all wars, all of the time.
Already has, and will continue to happen. We are just as savage as chimps in the jungle. We just have better weapons.
Went there in 2008. It's an eery experience what was sobering was the cemetery with so many headstones dated 10th June 1944
I visited this village a few years ago. This documentary is outstanding in bringing it to life. I left the site with a few questions, you just answered them all. Thank you.
I have been there. I will never forget, the silence and the sadness when we walk through that memorial. very moving.
Never fails to amaze me just how many people back then got away without much of a sentence for their parts in massacres. People who literally murdered thousands of civilians and likely never even saw the inside of a prison, and lived long lives. Unbelievable what people can get away with in times of war.
The main perpetrator of the My Lai massacre, William Calley, lives in Florida, a free man.
They got away with as the USA preferred nazis to socialists .
Well the internet nowadays prevents this from occurring or at the very least it will ensure the culprits won’t go unpunished
@@Great_Lakes_Discus no it doesn't. Look at north Korea, China and the massacres in Africa. That's only a quick example. These massacres are still happening, just not on the same scale.
@@prestigious5s23 that’s not the same thing, those countries are doing that to their own people, we’re talking about WAR crimes
Thank you for sharing this. My grandmother grew up in a town very close by to where this happened as well as born in a town that was even closer (Azerables).They never forget this and it just made the people more dedicated to helping the resistance. She was only 9 when this happened.
Oh man, my gf and I stumbled upon this place in 93, looking for a campsite. We checked it out and we were the only people there, late afternoon in June. It was haunting. The pamphlet we were given said Souvenir-Vous. We still have it.
Hello, I have been there several times, I lived maybe 50 miles from Oradour, now I live in Normandy. Of all the messages written on this page, you wrote the most accurate word to describe the atmosphere there: HAUNTING. When you walk in those streets, you can hardly talk...I do not have the words to describe it, I felt not only sad, but also really scared. The pamphlet actually says "Souvenez-vous", which means "Remember".
It looked like a fruit-stand on the side of the road, only next to a fenced area I thought might be a campsite. The bored girl in the stand mentioned one nearby and since we had already stopped, we went in. We didn't expect a Nazi atrocity. Not in that part of Europe. It was a lonely feeling. When we left the stand had closed and the sun was low. We found the campsite and didn't say much until the next day.
This video deserves all the recognition it can get. Very well put together, thank you.
No, its just hate.
My wife and I visited about 10 years ago on a chilly December day. We walked through the village then up the lane to the cemetery. I was moved by the inscription on many graves “murdered by nazis”. Made it real for this man from Australia who had never seen such a thing before. Thanks for the video so I could revisit and remember.
This atrocity was not the only massacre committed in France by Nazis. It happened in many other places, like in the village of Maillé, central France, where 124 civilians were killed by another SS unit, on August 25, 1944. More than 2 months after DDAY. Among them many children and women. But unlike Oradour Sur Glane, this village was rebuilt after the war. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maill%C3%A9_massacre During 4 years, about 30000 French civilian hostages or captured Maquis fighters had been executed on the spot without any trial, just after their capture. It was not uncommon to shoot 30 or 40 civilian hostages taken at random, for only 1 Nazi officer or soldier killed : kzhead.info/sun/l9evcZSNopaIqK8/bejne.html
@@alainproviste3523 don’t forget Lidice
Thank you for the video. My nextdoor and his wife passed away a few years ago now, well into their 90's, but they would often come over with bags of garden produce or fruit they'd grown, and share a small tipple. They told me about friends and family they lost in nearby Oradour; the hardships of near starvation, surviving on chestnuts, turnips and Jerusalem artichokes during winter months, and how in our local woods, some French were taken out and shot for denouncing others to the Germans.
Here in greece we have ours oradour sur glan. The name of village is kalavrita.A BIG MASSACRE .in 13 december 1943 the 117 gebirgsjager division burned kalavrita and other 26 villages.1300 greeks inhabidans massacred with mg 42 machine gun on a hill out of the kalavrita and in the other villages in the orthodox churches with mp 40 submachineguns and grenades by the german beasts..all the male population from 12 -80 years old.you can find it if you google it.KALAVRITA MASSACRE
Ja sam Srbin i čitao i gledao o kalavriji
@@VasaSavanovic write it in english.we dont understund
@@mikiszezas2731 how it possible that German nation don't pay full prize for inaction in ww2 and survive. That is prof that vikings have intention vith Russia
My wife and I visited Oradour Sur Glane some 5 years ago. It was heartbreaking we as visitors reading the story whilst walking the streets we could not comprehend the sheer brutality that went on that day, we will never forget that day.
It reminds me of the hellstorm documentary. There were terrible atrocities in that as well.
I visited here and it was one of those places that stayed with me. After I left. Walking around the village was truly a sad experience. Strangely there were no bird sounds just a silence. Heartbreaking memorial to the cruelty of war and those poor villagers mindlessly murdered. May their souls rest in peace.
One of the most well made documentary's I have ever seen ! First I have ever heard of this event . Myself a US Army vet of 2 wars & 70 years old . I am sickened by anyone calling themselves a soldier that intentionally kills unarmed civilians . Orders be damned . Events like these are so disgusting it makes me ashamed of my German Ancestry . No soldier should ever follow any such orders & should do everything to stop it .
Germen were in total panic. In lorient submariner refused to go in uboat and hiddent in the streets city totally destroyed feared to be kill by population.
"Nobody should follow such order" U know american bomb have kill 200 000 french civil. Big cities have been totally erased of the map by american army.😅 In neutral point of views death is death.
In the great 1973 BBC documentary. Sir Lawrence Olivier, World at War. 24 parts. The first part starts out with Sir Lawrence Olivier talking about this French town. At the end of the 24th part. The series ends with Sir Lawrence Olivier saying the same words and you hear sad music and see pictures of many of the victims.
An interesting post script, I discovered when I visited a few years ago. The people of the village were awarded, by De Gaulle, a combined Legion de Honeur and a massive bronze plaque that was presented and hung in the new village. After the amnesty of the French SS soldiers convicted of the massacre in the ‘53 trials, the village sent back both the medal and plaque in disgust. Even removing the notation of the medal from the town name. They also withdrew the open invite for French Govt officials, including De Gaulle, to parade with the survivors and relatives annually at the remembrance service in the old village. This lasted to the early 80’s, before accepting the govt back. But they’ve still, as of 2019, asked for the medal, plaque or heading on the town name. It’s an eerie place to visit. People are all quiet and treat it with great respect. Children can’t play there, or make a noise. It’s only very recently that photography in the old village has been allowed. Thank you for a very interested video. It’s very thorough and detailed. 👍
I came across Oradour by accident l was travelling by car driving up from the South to look at a property near Limoges, l knew nothing of the history, but as l approached l honestly felt a real chill go right through me, a sixth sense if you will or foreboding of something terrible, on this warm summer afternoon, l actually felt it before l saw it, l didn’t realise what it was but l knew l had been affected by something and stopped and wrote down the name intending to look up later this place, l hardly stopped a minute by the side of the road but will remember it as l still do for the rest of my life that eerie feeling. Later that evening l telephoned my wife and told her l had this weird experience of something dreadful (still ignorant) as my first thought something terrible may have happed at home - lm not normally a person to get these awful premonitions
my neighbor Tony Stankewich, served in ww2.his unit was sent to scour france looking for camps. He kept a chest filled with movie film, and old camera, and the projection. also in this case was ammo, grenades, and other items. His son and i took that chess and watched those movies. The cruel medical atrocities that were filmed was unreal. They found the dr's and the camp commander, stripped them, dragged them to the ovens and let the camp deal with them. I was relieved to know that by watching the movie, the healthier prisoners took care of them. The dr's and nurses were all taken back to the hospital and dealt with.. I and my friend will always be haunted by what we have seen, His dad died,and his wife and oldest girl took that chess and foot locker to a friends house where unopened, put into a 6 foot hole and burned.. Their Dad's final wish..
I’ve actually visited there, it’s so chilling and there are no birds, no noise at all. It’s like the universe mourns it too.
It’s so important for people to see what “civilized” society is capable of, not only a few generations ago. These poor people were just trying to live their lives, and were rounded up by monsters, and killed. These things still happen even today, and go unreported……
Thankyou for taking the time and trouble to reconstruct this.
Thank you John, it was a video we really felt needed doing.
I also visited the town 28 years ago. The silence and the way things are frozen in time profoundly shakes the soul. The scale of the indiscriminate inhumanity, to destroy an entire town in a few hours, is so distressing. The drive home was silent and I have never forgotten that day.
Visited the village in July this year. I found it to be a desperately sad place, and the massacre was difficult to understand. The new village really does convey a feeling of a new beginning. Excellent film.
I'm American and 61. I watched the World at War series all the time in my teens. I have always been interested in history and that show was impactful. . I also speak French and have been to France/Europe 3 times in my life. I spent 3 months there in 1983 but for some reason I didn't get to the beaches at Normandie until my last visit in 2018. (Altho I was at Mont St Michel) I do not remember the details of the WaW series, but this fall I plan to go to France with my friend of 40+ years who grew up in Paris and moved to the US at age 22. I will ask her if we can go here. I would like to, to pay respects. Such a sad story of the cruelty of mankind. Thank you for the very well done video.
You advertising yourself or?
@@sextempiric7137 haha. I lost my dance studio to covid and have lots of time on my hands. Entertaining myself by watching KZhead. Sorry for infringing on your life! Lol
I didn’t even know about this. I’ve read about Lidice and Ležáky in Czechoslovakia. What a horrible event. God rest their souls✝️
I visited my parents in France, many years ago and my Father took me to the village. Although the village is in ruins, you can still get a feel of the tragedy that happened. It certainly tugs at the heart strings.
i visited this village with my family many years ago now, but the impact of walking the streets, seeing items standing or hanging on walls, in many cases the names of the family that live in houses attached to burnt walls, the sadness of walking the church yard, but most of all you could still smell burning throughout the village, that experience never left my family or myself, everybody should make an effort to go see for themselves, in wars NO body wins
When I visited here there were two buses full of school children also there besides many families, but as you walked around had you closed your eyes you would have thought you were there alone, no one made a noise, the place itself made you want to be quiet and respectful, even the children felt it. Everyone should visit this place.
Excellent work. Brilliant to see the village as it would have been. I've been to Oradour and it was a sobering visit.
What an absolute tragedy. I hope to visit there one day and pay my respects.
It is breath taking ,I visited it on a road trip
My wife and I visited here in 2017 on a trip to France. I was at once both appalled and fascinated by the scene. My wife could barely speak. Strangely enough the day we were there the was a school group, who, sadly, maybe didn't understand the gravity of the village, and spend more time laughing and on their phones! It made a surreal place even more sad. Every 10th of June I remember the village and those poor souls, and remind myself that cruelly today, this is happening STILL around the world. Thank you for creating and sharing.
It killed me. "spent more time laughing" Stupid parents who give to children a stupidphones.
Yes. Adults need to be adults, and make those kids put away their damn phones.
"Down this road on a summer day in 1944, the soldiers came. Nobody lives here now. They stayed only a few hours. When they had gone, a community, which had lived for a thousand years, was dead. This is Oradour-Sur-Glane, in France. The day the soldiers came, the people were gathered together. The men were taken to garages and barns, the women and children were led down this road, and they were driven into this church. Here, they heard the firing as their men were shot. Then they were killed too. A few weeks later, many of those who had done the killing were themselves dead, in battle. They never rebuilt Oradour. Its ruins are a memorial. Its martyrdom stands for thousands upon thousands of other martyrdoms in Poland, in Russia, in Burma, China, in a world at war."
Very very moving ❤
The sad truth? The world still refuses to learn from such horrific moments in history. May all the men, women and children of Oradour-Sur-Glane rest in peace...
Indeed. As we see with Russia's daily war crimes in Ukraine.
@@dngriffiths8105 Thats why the world views the West's moral posturing with contempt. While you do all the moral outrage on Ukraine, we remember Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Vietnam, not to forget the dozen odd murderous dictators you propped up.
@@NewChannel-wi7vj Gee, let's see. Millions of lives lost during WWI and WWII should have been incentive enough to "learn". Yes, it's obvious such atrocities aren't new. And mankind has shown over and over again, it's inability to learn from the past. Unfortunately, history repeats itself, too often for the worse...
@@NewChannel-wi7vj Your comment definitely does not enlighten anyone and is certainly does not show the good side of the human race. There are more nice people than haters on this planet. Some create wars but many more learn and work toward peace.
I just visited the village today, it was a surreal vision of total destruction. As I walked through the village just before getting to the church I saw a building with the name Mercier on it. That is my family name but know nothing of the heritage in France. There were a few Merciers that died that day. Unreal.
A nicely filmed documentary of the horrific SS deed, they were the worst, because they did not shy away from killing women and children. Here in Bohemia, a similar fate befell the villages of Lidice and Ležáky. It was terrible and one does not even want to imagine it, but we must not forget!
Ive been to Oradour Its really creepy especially the cemetery with glass coffins containing bone fragments of the victims .
Thank you for this video - I can truly imagine that it was hard to make. I was there with my class in 1981. Walking through this village can't be explained by words. I will never forget the doctor's car- at the same spot where he was stopped. Remember! xxx 🙏
It is the most haunting and moving place which I have ever visited . May they continue to Rest in Peace .
Went several times as a kid. We had a house nearby. It’s a haunting place. Going into the church and seeing the bullet holes in the walls. Unreal
Thank you very much for bringing this village to life once again. The horrors experienced by the people of Oradour-sur-Glane are hard to bear even today. Even if a clash with the French resistance was the motive for the tragedy, it remains a cowardly and unforgivable act by vengeful German soldiers who were nothing but murderers. All honour to the mothers of Oradour!
I went to France in 86 and studied French at a chateau called Rambouillet outside Paris. The lady teaching French brought me dozens of French magazines detailing the massacre. She made it clear that she would never forgive or forget.
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I knew an American Army officer who saved an entire village during the battle of the bulge. He was ordered to retreat but realizing the village would be annihilated he ordered his troops to help evacuate the townspeople. Many decades later he was honored by the village. Once before he died and then again at his internment at Arlington.
A superb presentation of a nauseatingly sad and downright evil event in history…
Having visited the village myself i can safely say the atmosphere when you're walking around is strangely peaceful and eerily quiet, the day I was there there must have been a good 200 people there and nobody spoke with raised voices or any anger all the people that were there were joined by a respectful silence...... I urge you if you ever get the chance to go and visit please do and as it says as you enter the village REMEMBER
Definitely added this on my list of places to go, on my trip later this year. The SS were some sick fucks, but, somehow, I'm drawn to the history.
THE DEEPEST reconnaissance for this work. I am 85 and knew it all in Normandy. THANK YOU REGARDS
You are welcome.
Surely if you are 85 (as I am) you could not have "known it all" in Normandy other than to see newspapers & newsreels. @@BattleGuideVT
I live in rural eastern France, five minute away from my town is another one where the SS locked a hundred people in the church before setting it on fire, it happened after D DAY with German forces leaving France and going full scorched earth. In my hometown they blew up 2 bridges and the railway over the river to stop allied advance, nothing was burnt to the ground and no civilians were rounded up as the germans present were not SS. The mayor from back then begged the Germans not to destroy anything and spare the people, the commander of the garrisson replied he wouldn't do it anyway as it would be pointless and horrible, he had apparently seen the other side of scorched eath on the eastern front.
I have visited this place. It's haunting to say the least. It really affected me and I still remember how I felt at the time.
I have been there. Watching this almost had me in tears again.
The last survivor was Robert Hébras. Born 29th. June 1925 died 11th. February 2023.
Some years ago on a road trip across France I visited this village and it left a long lasting impression on me, in particular the cemetery which holds reminders of all the families and individuals destroyed by the Germans and symbolizing man’s inhumanity to man.
According to the narative writen when you enter Oradour, things where a lot more vicious than this story tells. In the church, the SS poured petrol by the windows and hand grenades to make the bodies unrecognisable. The men, where to stand on street corners then shot only in the legs. While they where partially immobilised laying down, then also, petrol was poured over them and lit to burn them alive. That is the more accurate sad reality of Oradour sur Glane ! Leaving the parking, passing by the tunnel leading to the town, there are pictures and describtives of what did happen there. I saw there a lot of people starting to cry before even entering the town.
I visited the village last year, I can not put into words the feelings I felt, the word’s Remember is all I can find and Sorry.
The Brother of my grandma was in this division „Das Reich“ and also in Oradur. He was 17years old and was two years as a POW in Great Britain. He was a very funny guy to me and didn‘t talk very late about this event with family members.
My Father too. He ran away. He was !9 and had been enlisted since he was 15 and had fought in Russia too
I travelled from north belguim to see this, and was shocking.
_Down this road on a summer day in 1944,_ _the soldiers came. Nobody lives here now._ _They stayed only a few hours. When they had gone,_ _a community, which had lived for a thousand years, was dead._ _This is Oradour-sur-Glane in France._ _The day the soldiers came the people were gathered together._ _The men were taken to garages and barns,_ _the women and children were led down this road,_ _and they were driven into this church._ _Here, they heard the firing as their men were shot._ _Then they were killed, too. A few weeks later_ _many of those who had done the killing_ _were themselves dead...in battle._ _They never rebuilt Oradour. Its ruins are a memorial._ _Its martyrdom stands for thousand upon thousand of other martyrdoms_ _in Poland, in Russia, in Burma, in China..._ _In a World at War._ *THE WORLD AT WAR - 1973*
Thank you Ryan. I heard Sir Laurence Olivier voice speaking these words the entire time I watched this documentary - then I came to add what you had already done. Thank you again. The World at War, Season 1, episode 1.
I’ve got the complete set of the series. The opening statement is a very powerful reminder of the atrocities of war.
The TV series that was made before the iron curtain fell. Which is why some it was inaccurate.
a brilliant and clear explanation of the horrific events which took place here.
Thanks Tony, glad you enjoyed it.
Thank you for your time and dedication in the making of this video to educate and document the horrific actions of that day back in 1944. Rest in peace Oradour-Sur-Glane. 🙏🏻
I drove through, but it was too much to bear to stop and visit. I also drove past Lidice in Czechoslovakia, in 1964, on the way back from Prague. A similar event happened there. The Nazis were not punished enough, a hanging was too swift and humane, compared with what they dished out.
Hello, I live 150km from Oradour sur Glane which I have never visited and whose tragic history I know, you have really told it very well with the right amount of detail and information, your 3D animation of the town takes you back to what this small village was like before this heinous massacre! Congratulations to the person who comments on this video and who took the care and trouble to pronounce all the French words and names in French, it's important, because it gives more strength and realism to the story!😊
Thank you very much for the kind comments.
@@BattleGuideVT 😊
The 1973 award-winning British-made series about all of World War II ('The World at War'), narrated by Sir Laurence Olivier, opens with video of this French village, with a brief recounting of what happened.
Is this the ridiculously racist series? Banzai banzai banzai lol? I wonder if anyone will cover the 98 year old french resistance hero who yesterday recounted for the first time the massacre of german pows by the french resistance? ;(
@@jesuschrist2284 The execution of German POWs on June 1944. He talked about it in 2019. Now they'll try to find the bodies to give them a decent burial.
@@phlm9038 quite right he did talk about it in 2019, my apologies. Im in no way saying murderer POWs or anyone else is right though, and edmond was a true hero of france.
@@jesuschrist2284 No kind of massacres is right. But I don't think the massacre of the village of Oradour is a consequence of the executions of the POWs as it took place 70 kms away and they buried the bodies straight away.
@@phlm9038 i think i read germans executed 90 hostages in retaliation? Its all absolutely horrendous, but talking about it makes sure people are aware of what happened and hopefully less likely to happen again.
Im a historian of both WW2 & WW1. I'm very familiar with the Nazi concentration & death camp stories as most are. But I had never heard of this story until now. I don't know why the history books dont talk more about Oracour because they should. They always push the Normandie narrative when it comes to France &WW2. The Oracour Massacre truly is a horrible & horrific story. But one that must be told. This surreal tragedy ranks up there with the rape of Nanking(China)event. Its disturbing that the majority of the nazi survivors involved, escaped prosecution even when brought to trial. I hope they are all rotting in hell. I want to say thank you to the producers of this story and for taking the time to piece it together and bring it to life. Such a heart wrenching story is very eloquently & brilliantly told. Thank you! May all of those innocent souls that had their lives taken that fateful day eternally and blissfully RIP🙏
This atrocity was not the only massacre committed in France by Nazis. It happened in many other places, like in the village of Maillé, central France, where 124 civilians were killed by another SS unit, on August 25, 1944. More than 2 months after DDAY. Among them many children and women. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maill%C3%A9_massacre During 4 years, about 30000 French civilian hostages or captured Maquis fighters had been executed on the spot without any trial, just after their capture. It was not uncommon to shoot 30 or 40 civilian hostages taken at random, for only 1 Nazi officer or soldier killed : kzhead.info/sun/l9evcZSNopaIqK8/bejne.html Without talking of the 200000 other French deported, whom a big part never came back.
@@alainproviste3523or the Ascq massacre in the North of France. Even before the d-day: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascq_massacre Or the Le Paradis massacre in 1940 (by the 3rd SS Div). en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Paradis_massacre Or Tulle or Dortan or many others perpetrated by the German Army in France (not even talking about other countries who endured the same fate).
In Poland the Nazis and the soviets killed something like 1500 Oradour. 80% done by the Nazis.
Great video!! Ive been to Oradour its so haunted and sad..i was the only one walking around..the cemetary has glass coffins with bones of the victims ...I agree when you enter the village and see the word "Remember " carved in stone it is really haunting..
My brain finds it hard to comprehend what these cruel bastards could do to fellow human beings
Heart-breaking! may they rest in piece each and every one of them!
I cannot imagine the fear that these poor people went through.A mothers watching their children murdered by evil people.May they RIP.
A brilliant video As a french citizen it broke my heart to see what happened to my beautiful country and the inhabitants of this village. Hoping somehow that lessons are learnt from all this...😢
Sadly they have not been.
Your “beautiful country” committed atrocities like this all over their African colonies as well as elsewhere, you guys got off lightly if anything……just saying.
@capoislamort100 I don t deny it but in my heart it is a beautiful country.....I live in the uk...it also has lot to answer for as do many others
@@capoislamort100and now it's the Africans committing atrocities in Africa. Actually, it's always been that way.