Martyred Village | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans

On June 10, 1944, Nazi forces carried out a massacre of 642 civilians in the French village of Oradour-sur-Glane. An excerpt from the article:

"Before the war, Oradour-sur-Glane was a quiet, rural community in central France. In 1944, the village was left in ruins after German Waffen-SS troops massacred 642 men, women, and children before burning the village to the ground. Today, tourists can visit the old town of Oradour where crumbling walls, cars, and other household items have been left untouched for the last 74 years. The ruins of this village serve as a reminder of Nazi atrocities suffered by not only the French but also other civilian populations who came face-to-face with Nazi oppression.

The group responsible for the heinous crimes committed at Oradour was the Der Führer regiment, a branch of the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich. Das Reich arrived in France as a reserve unit in January 1944 after spending two years on the Eastern Front, where they engaged in combat and were responsible for putting down Soviet partisan resistance. Das Reich was under the command of SS-Obergruppenführer (Major General) Heinz Bernhard Lammerding. During his time on the Eastern Front, Lammerding ordered several retaliations against Soviet citizens for real or perceived partisan actions. These retaliations involved the murder of tens of thousands of Soviet civilians along with the torching of numerous villages.

Following the June 6 Allied invasion in Normandy, Das Reich was assigned a new mission to support German forces fighting in northern France. The Division also received orders to put down any maquis (guerilla bands of French Resistance fighters) while simultaneously intimidating the population and reasserting German control over central and southern France. Once orders were received, the Division began to move north towards Normandy.

On the morning of June 10, 1944, only four days after D-Day, the citizens of Oradour woke to what they assumed would be another normal day. During the war, Oradour had not seen much action and townspeople saw few Germans passing through the city. Around 2 p.m., under the command of SS-Sturmbannführer (Major) Adolf Diekmann, somewhere between 120 and 200 soldiers of the Panzer regiment Der Führer encircled the town blocking all entrances and exits. The town crier was sent to relay the message that all citizens, including the sick and elderly, were to report to the town market center. Armored cars gathered citizens who were out working in the fields and within an hour the Germans had rounded up every villager they could find in the market center. Most citizens were at first unconcerned, believing the Germans had arrived for a routine identification check. It was not long before the citizens realized that nothing about the exercise was routine."