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After WW2, deGaulle ordered that the ruins of Oradour-Sur-Glane remain, never to be razed, never to be rebuilt, as a monument to those who died, and a reminder of what should be remembered.
"On June 10, 1944, four days after the D-Day invasion, a German Waffen SS Panzer Division sealed off the town and rounded up 642 residents, refugees, and people traveling through. Those rounded up believed that it was a routine check of identity papers.
The 190 men were taken to barns and sheds, where they were shot with machine guns. Then the structures were locked and burned with men still alive. At the same time, 247 women and 205 children were locked in the church. Those inside were gassed, and then the church was set on fire. Anyone managing to escape through the windows was shot. That night, the village was looted and burned."
In the ruins of dozens of houses, the remains of sewing machines still stand.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/oradour-sur-glane
Tom M.
"On June 10, 1944, four days after the D-Day invasion, a German Waffen SS Panzer Division sealed off the town and rounded up 642 residents, refugees, and people traveling through. Those rounded up believed that it was a routine check of identity papers.
The 190 men were taken to barns and sheds, where they were shot with machine guns. Then the structures were locked and burned with men still alive. At the same time, 247 women and 205 children were locked in the church. Those inside were gassed, and then the church was set on fire. Anyone managing to escape through the windows was shot. That night, the village was looted and burned."
In the ruins of dozens of houses, the remains of sewing machines still stand.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/oradour-sur-glane
Tom M.