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29/01/2008, 16:54 cowoman Joined on 08/04/2007 WR9 and 87 Posts 230 Re: Oradour sur Glanes We went  to Oradour in september 2007 and didnt have to pay.We entered through the museum.Then walked around the eerie streets up to the cemetary.We saw photos on headstones of the familys that had been killed  ..Anyone know what made the Germans do this?    Report

29/01/2008, 19:20 Bernice Joined on 23/08/2004 Finistere, Brittany Posts 115 Re: Oradour sur Glanes I was very moved when I visited the village, there were other visitors there but everyone was walking around in silence.  A friend told me that in the new village which has been built nearby many of the surnames of the shopkeepers are the same as the names on the memorial to the people massacred.  This link has a lot of information  http://www.scrapbookpages.com/Oradour-sur-Glane/Story/index.html Bernice    Report

29/01/2008, 22:14 Anna Joined on 23/08/2004 Dordogne Posts 171 Re: Oradour sur Glanes This link gives the official opening hours and tariff: http://www.oradour.org/index.php?rubrique=107    Report

29/01/2008, 22:40 Scooby Joined on 25/09/2007 Peak District Posts 244 Re: Oradour sur Glanes  Bernice wrote: I was very moved when I visited the village, there were other visitors there but everyone was walking around in silence.  A friend told me that in the new village which has been built nearby many of the surnames of the shopkeepers are the same as the names on the memorial to the people massacred.  This link has a lot of information  http://www.scrapbookpages.com/Oradour-sur-Glane/Story/index.html Bernice We found that one of the most eerie things - walking into the bakery and seeing the name over the door - the same family name of a number of the dead on the memorial.  It must be very strange living so close to a tragedy like that - seeing it every day exactly as it was.  We didn't get to see the museum the day we went (last Christmas) as it was closed but plan to visit with neighbours from our village this summer.  My neighbour's mum knew some of those who died at Oradour.    Report

31/01/2008, 9:32 bixy Joined on 12/09/2004 Posts 268 Re: Oradour sur Glanes Like 'dwmcn', I too noticed the large number of sewing machines. And the more I walked around the odder things seemed. Where, for example, were all the roof tiles from all those collapsed roofs, and where were all the bedsteads that would have been in the bedrooms? Where were all the small metal items that would normally have been in every household - cutlery, scissors,tools? Why were there so many cars and large ones at that? I find it hard to believe that a village that size in the those days would have that many car owners. I think I counted at least a dozen. I had always believed, probably read, that the village had been left "just as it was after the massacre". This is clearly not the case. I strongly gained the impression that the village martyr had in some senses been recreated with the odd bicycle here, a cooking pot there and yes the many sewing machines. My guess is that the village must have been extensively picked over by neighbours, surviving relatives and anything useful removed. That might explain the absence of roof tiles. Only later was it decided that the village would be left as a memorial and at that time a number of artefacts were added to give an air of authenticity. None of the foregoing takes away the impact of the place and the horror of it all. Strangely, for me one of the most poignant sights was the old railway, with the rails still set in the ground, the overhead cables and the little station. This is all that remains of a once extensive system of tramways radiating out from Limoges which allowed the country people access to the city. It was all too easy to imagine the people with their baskets and bags standing at the station, chatting and laughing waiting for the little train to take them into town. Oblivious of the horror to come... Patrick    Report

31/01/2008, 10:02 Cathy Joined on 07/03/2006 Mostly near Bordeaux; Sometimes near Bristol Posts 1,688 Re: Oradour sur Glanes Patrick/Bixy: The village was ransacked on the night of the massacre and the buildings razed.  Hence why there would be no tiles etc.   One of the ironies was that the SS battalion sealed off the wrong village.  The place where a German officer was bing held hostage by the Resistance (the reason for the Germans' action) was in fact Oradour-sur-Vayres.     Cathy ----- Your children won't remember you ironing their pyjamas but they will remember you reading them a bedside story.    Report

31/01/2008, 12:42 Valleyboy Joined on 29/10/2006 Chalus, Haute Vienne Posts 134 Re: Oradour sur Glane Patrick, I don't know how old you are, but when I was a kid in the 40s and 50s, almost every house in the UK had a sewing machine, and mothers made and mended clothes and domestic linen with them; seeing the machines in the houses at Oradour took me back to my childhood. Apart from the horror of what took place there, it is a fascinating piece of social history; you can see how life was in a small French town in the 30s, and also the trades that no longer exist. Phil    Report

31/01/2008, 19:00 bixy Joined on 12/09/2004 Posts 268 Re: Oradour sur Glane I know that the village was razed. The buildings collapsed, the tiles fell off the roofs. Tiles do not burn. What happened to them? My curiosity and my conviction that the village is not as it was left and has been much adjusted since, does not diminish the meaning of the place. I would just like to know what happened in the years immediately after the massacre. I don't suppose I will though. Patrick    Report

31/01/2008, 19:46 Cathy Joined on 07/03/2006 Mostly near Bordeaux; Sometimes near Bristol Posts 1,688 Re: Oradour sur Glane  bixy wrote: I know that the village was razed. The buildings collapsed, the tiles fell off the roofs. Tiles do not burn. What happened to them? My curiosity and my conviction that the village is not as it was left and has been much adjusted since, does not diminish the meaning of the place. I would just like to know what happened in the years immediately after the massacre. I don't suppose I will though. Patrick I'm going there in February.  I suppose that in the immediate aftermath, things would have been tidied up?  At what point would the decision to make it into a memorial would have been made? The tragedy at Oradour is beyond our comprehension.  I can't believe that they had to kill so many.  And the war was coming to an end.  Perhaps it was the confusion of the Normandy landings (on 6th June 1944 when the massacre was 4 days later on 10th June) that precipitated such mindless terrorism.   Cathy ----- Your children won't remember you ironing their pyjamas but they will remember you reading them a bedside story.    Report

31/01/2008, 23:13 shawny Joined on 26/11/2007 Posts 14 Re: Oradour sur Glanes  Cathy wrote:   One of the ironies was that the SS battalion sealed off the wrong village.  The place where a German officer was bing held hostage by the Resistance (the reason for the Germans' action) was in fact Oradour-sur-Vayres.     That depends on whose account you read and whose theory on this massacre you wish to believe.    Report

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France Forum » French Culture » French History » Oradour sur Glane

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