Stop! In our tousled heads in the wind of the news, the fever wins. The whirlwind of virus figures and the tumult of opposing opinions is deafening. The political games in France, the economic crisis, the uncertainty around the Brexi, the din of american elections and the resurgent wars occupy attention. This very dense topicality challenges us and concerns us. But have we already forgotten facts that caused a stir throughout France a little over a month ago? They happened at Oradour-sur-Glane, in Haute-Vienne.
We must speak again and again of Oradour-sur-Glane because on August 21, this place of memory has been desecrated. Cowards, sinister anonymous, crossed out the word “martyr” to replace it by the word “liar”. At the site of the biggest massacre of civilians in France during World War II, the revisionists are on the move while we are busy with other things.
Why talk about it again at the beginning of October when there is so much to say about our planet? Why come back to it today in West France with such a long report (to be found in the digital version of our newspaper)? Because the jumble of information that assails us seems to stifle the deafening silence of the ruins of Oradour-sur-Glane, frozen in eternity. Would he already make us forget those smiles full of humanity, placed on the tombstones of the small cemetery of the common martyr?
Understanding the unnameable
The facts: On June 10, 1944, the SS of the 2nd Das Reich division massacred 643 inhabitants of the village. Children and women are slaughtered or burned alive in the church, the men gathered in small groups along the sidewalks or in barns are shot. The murderers of the 1st Battalion of the 4th Panzergrenadier Regiment Der Fürher premeditated the operation, with the help of the militia. Let us never forget that.
Ouest-France went to meet the inhabitants of Oradour (1). Since 1944, anonymous messages have been sent regularly to smear the memory of the victims and challenge the facts. You have to visit Oradour-sur-Glane to understand the unspeakable, walk through these ruins left unchanged by the will of General de Gaulle to preserve the memory of the massacres. You must visit the memory center which recalls the barbarism of June 10, 1944.
Since that terrible day, a man testifies, without weakening. Robert Hebras, 95, is the last survivor of the massacre. Every day of his life, he thought of his loved ones, his mother, his sisters, his best friend who fell by his side under the bullets of the SS: “Why him and not me? Since then, he has fought “for the memory to continue and for the reconciliation of peoples”.
After the war, the leaders of the former enemy countries chose to build a common future. European construction has laid the foundation for lasting peace. Yes, Europe has enabled Peace. But let’s never forget Oradour-sur-Glane which reminds us of what war is. Revisionism must be fought relentlessly.
(1) The texts and videos of the report by Melissa Boufigi and Marc Ollivier can be consulted on the site ouest-france.fr
– .
