Massacre At Oradour

by FOUCHE, JEAN-JACQUES; Sices, David; Atkinson, James B.

• ISBN13: 9780875806013
• ISBN10: 0875806015
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-11-30
• Publisher: Northern Illinois Univ Pr

Summary

Near the end of World War II, four days after Allied armies landed at Normandy, a unit of Waffen SS troops en route to that front surrounded the French village of Oradour-sur-Glane and, without warning, systematically massacred its citizens. The Nazi soldiers herded women and children into the village church, machine-gunned them, and set the church on fire while some were still alive. The men were taken to barns in groups, where they were shot. Afterward, the Nazis plundered the village and burned it to the ground. Altogether, more than 640 men, women, and children died in Oradour that day. Jean-Jacques Fouch explores the massacre from several points of view-religious or ethnic differences, the background and training of the Nazi soldiers, and German suspicions that villagers sheltered Jewish and Spanish anti-fascist refugees. Probing the most shocking massacre in World War II France, he shows how memory affects our understanding of the past.

Author Biography

Jean-Jacques Fouche was the first director of the Centre de la Memoire d'Oradour.

Table of Contents

Introduction ORADOUR-SUR-GLANE AND THE DEGENERATION OF WAR by Jay Winter	vii
Translators' Note by David Sices and James B. Atkinson	xiv
Maps	xvi
1 WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT THE MASSACRE?	3	(13)
Can Ruins Speak?	3	(2)
"Oradour Is a Complicated Business..."	5	(5)
Seven Publications...and a Few Others	10	(2)
The Archives Are Opened	12	(4)
2 THE WAR CULTURE OF THE WAFFEN SS	16	(17)
Berlin, 1933	16	(1)
Bavaria: Joining the SS	17	(6)
The "Brutal" War in the East	23	(5)
The War in the East for the Das Reich Division	28	(5)
3 THE SS DAS REICH DIVISION IN FRANCE	33	(9)
Preparing for the "Invasion"	33	(2)
Drafting Frenchmen from Annexed Alsace	35	(3)
"Segregating" the Resistance: The "Bands"	38	(4)
4 A HOT SPOT: THE MASSIF CENTRAL	42	(25)
The Situation Deteriorates	42	(6)
The Attack on the Town of Tulle	48	(2)
The Waffen SS in Limoges	50	(3)
Harassment and Repression	53	(5)
Preparations for a "Brutal Operation"	58	(6)
The Waffen SS Butchers Leave for Oradour	64	(3)
5 WAS ORADOUR JUST AN ORDINARY VILLAGE?	67	(35)
"It Is a Verdant Hollow by a Murmuring Stream"	67	(5)
Economy and Politics in the Village	72	(6)
The Refugees	78	(5)
Interventions by Vichy	83	(8)
Food Supplies, the "Gray Market," and the Black Market	91	(3)
Changing Opinions and Behavior	94	(2)
There Were No Maquis	96	(3)
Just an Ordinary Village	99	(1)
The Population of Oradour in June 1944	100	(2)
6 ACCOUNT OF THE MASSACRE	102	(48)
Surprise Attack	102	(2)
Surrounding the Village	104	(3)
A Roundup without Exceptions	107	(6)
Waiting on the Fairgrounds: The Demand for Hostages	113	(2)
Separation	115	(2)
The Men Are Kept Waiting in the Square	117	(2)
Execution of the Men in Enclosed Areas	119	(4)
Pillaging, Arson, and Butchery in the Streets	123	(4)
The Massacre in the Church	127	(6)
The Survivors' Flight	133	(1)
The Horrifying Discovery of the Town on Fire	134	(3)
Some of the Troops Leave	137	(2)
Night in the Devastated Town	139	(1)
Searching for the Missing	140	(4)
Corpses Desecrated	144	(1)
Silence Concerning Acts of Sexual Violence	145	(2)
The Waffen SS Troops after the Massacre	147	(3)
7 THE VICTIMS	150	(29)
Counting the Dead	150	(3)
The Escapees	153	(2)
Burying the Dead	155	(3)
The Process of Memorialization	158	(15)
Commemorating	173	(6)
8 CONFLICTING ACCOUNTS	179	(25)
The Accounts Given by the Perpetrators	179	(5)
The Instrumentalization of Oradour	184	(4)
The Inaudible Account of Justice	188	(6)
Amnesty, the Memory of the Forced Draftees	194	(2)
Oradour's Own Account, a Collective Memory?	196	(3)
Why?	199	(5)
9 SOUVIENS-TOI-REMEMBER	204	(3)
Afterword ORADOUR-SUR-GLANE, JULY 16, 1999-Opening Ceremony	207	(6)
Glossary of Abbreviations and Foreign Terms	213	(4)
Notes	217	(36)
Bibliography	253	(7)
Index	260	(10)
The Author	270