• Hey Guest!
    British Car Forum has been supporting enthusiasts for over 25 years by providing a great place to share our love for British cars. You can support our efforts by upgrading your membership for less than the dues of most car clubs. There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Upgraded members don't see this banner, nor will you see the Google ads that appear on the site.)
Tips
Tips

The machines that remain.

Share this page

NutmegCT

NutmegCT

Great Pumpkin
Bronze
Offline
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.

Sewing-Machines-Oradour-sur-Glane-1.jpg

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/oradour-sur-glane

Tom M.
 
Must not forget.

Must also not allow history to be distorted or rewritten.
 
I've been there (2006), and walked through the town. Just amazing. Feels like a set from the old TV series "Combat." All school-children in France must visit it as part of their education.
Of the many stunning sites is the town church... with machine-gun holes in walls. There are a few cars left on the streets that are dissolving away. You can't go into many buildings (except the church) but, like this photo above, you can see how things were left. Because the entire place was set on fire by the retreating Germans, no buildings have roofs anymore (including the church).

Here are a few shots I took (of many). There is a small cemetery at one end of the town.
street.jpg graveyard.JPG car.JPG
 
As I only vaguely recall now, it's not too far from Sarlat (a lovely town with lots of British expats - which, therefore, has lots of people speaking English). :eek:
 
Oh my. Did not know of that.
 
Those old Singers are sturdy machines.
 
Back
Top