Indignation, sadness, anger: reactions to the act of vandalism perpetrated last Friday at the entrance to the ruins of the martyr village of Oradour-sur-Glane multiplied during the weekend, coming from all walks of life. But the most poignant is probably that of Robert Hebras.
Aged 95, he is the last of six survivors of the massacre of 642 people, men, women and children, committed on June 10, 1944 by a company of the second armored division of the SS, the Das Reich division. Seventy-six years later, this man whose mother and sisters died that day is still fighting for their memory. Sunday, he spoke to the Parisian about the tags referring to Vincent Reynouard, a former professor of mathematics defending negationist theses. ” It is an open wound for me. I wanted to pass on the memory of Oradour during all these years, but we forget it, as elsewhere. Let us remember that children and women have gone horribly missing in this church. When I come inside, I always wonder where my mother and sisters were. I wished all my life that they were gone as soon as possible … », He confided to our colleagues. ” What i fear, he continued, it’s because everyone talks about Oradour for 48 hours and then we stop, we forget. »
This time, we have the impression of having taken a step
Fabrice Escure, President of the Memory Center
Oblivion and ignorance, two fertile grounds for the development of conspiracy theories, against which the National Education must fight, as Jean-Michel Blanquer, the Minister of Education, said on Sunday, on Twitter, that “ Our first weapon against Holocaust denial is education. Ignorance of history and insulting those who perished are the ugly face of contemporary ignorance and hatred. The school is mobilized relentlessly against this to transmit knowledge and values. »
Negationist videos have already circulated concerning Oradour-sur-Glane, but such inscriptions had never been seen, said local authorities. “This time, we have the impression of having gone a step further,” lamented, for his part, the president of the Memory Center, Fabrice Escure.
“Abject dirt”
On June 10, 1944, the Germans had gathered the men in the barns of the village, had shot them and then had gathered women and children in the church before setting it on fire.
Saturday morning, a complaint was filed, he said: a gendarmerie investigation is underway. It will be able to rely on surveillance cameras. The Minister Delegate for Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, former member of the second district of Haute-Vienne, visited the site. “ The prosecutor (…) mobilized important services“, He assured the press. The Central Office for the Fight against Crimes against Humanity is seized with the Saint-Junien research brigade and the Limoges research section, according to a source familiar with the matter.
President Emmanuel Macron promised that “ everything (would) be done so that the perpetrators of this act are brought to justice “. And Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior, said that ” the services of the Ministry of the Interior are at the disposal of the mayor of the municipality to arrest the author of this abject dirt ».
As for the facade, it should be repaired quickly.
To see also – In Oradour-sur-Glane, Emmanuel Macron recalls the duty to remember (10/06/2017)
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