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31/01/2008, 10:02 Cathy Joined on 07/03/2006 Mostly near Bordeaux; Sometimes near Bristol Posts 1,860 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 141 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 291 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 1,860 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

01/02/2008, 9:48 dwmcn Joined on 21/04/2006 Posts 102 Re: Oradour sur Glane I was born in 1940, in the US, and my mother had a Singer sewing machine like those I saw. I know that a bit of looting probably took place, but was nobody interested in taking the sewing machines?     Report

01/02/2008, 9:58 Cendrillon Joined on 19/10/2007 S.E. England & S.W.France Posts 410 Re: Oradour sur Glane  dwmcn wrote: I was born in 1940, in the US, and my mother had a Singer sewing machine like those I saw. I know that a bit of looting probably took place, but was nobody interested in taking the sewing machines?    Probably the metal was distorted and buckled by the fires, any wooden parts would have been damaged or completely burnt and these old machines were very heavy so not easy to take. Cendrillon    Report

01/02/2008, 16:14 dwmcn Joined on 21/04/2006 Posts 102 Re: Oradour sur Glane I thought maybe they could convert them into Gatling guns. Vorsprung durch Technik.    Report

01/02/2008, 16:15 bixy Joined on 12/09/2004 Posts 291 Re: Oradour sur Glane I think the sewing machines were put there subsequently - there they sit perched on walls, clearly visible. Think about it. When the roofs and upper floors collapsed they would have been buried under tons of rubble. No, I'm quite sure that they and other artifacts were subsequently placed in the ruins to give an air of authenticity. Those who have yet to visit, when you do, see if you do not agree with me about a certain degree of "unnaturalness" about the place. Patrick    Report

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

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