The church of

a small quiet village

10 Jun 1944

after the disastre

When in 1940 after the occupation by Germany the members of the "Souvenir français" in Elsace-Lorraine were deported, we see also in novembre 1940   that people of the village of Charly who preferred to hold their french nationality get one week to prepare their departure. Only the people working in the mines or at the railway could stay. Also Emile Pincemaille had to leave his village Charly. They were transported with the train to the south and the centre of France, under the Vichy Régime. Two weeks later his son Marcel  and Clément Pincemaille, his grandson living in Metz were put on a list and they get only one hour of time in the morning before they were set on busses to the railway station. When they arrived at their destination they could reunify the family.

Unfortunetaly a lot of the neighbourghs of Emile Pincemaille of  Charly installed them in Oradour-sur-Glane, Haute Vienne, , Fra. and on the 10th of June 1944 almost all the inhabitants of Oradour were massacred by the German SS of the division "Das Reich" on their road from the South to Normandy. As a memory to this disaster (28 deaths for Charly) Charly was renamed to Charly-Oradour in 1950

? How and Why this Massacre in Oradour-sur-Glane ?

From the Massacre of Tulle 9 june to Oradour-sur-Glane 10 June 1944

(based on the following ref. : Oradour-sur-Glane 10th June 1944 , The tragedy which struck Oradour)

Oradour-sur-Glane, department Haute Vienne,  under the Vichy Régime	The SS Division "Das Reich" from Tulle to Oradour-sur-Glane 8-10 June 1944

Oradour-sur-Glane is situated in the department "Haute Vienne" . At that time the sitution of this region was very complex.

1. This part of France was under the Vichy-Régime and was allowed to govern itself. But it means also that there exists a big tension between the resistance  (and certainly the FTP, the communist resistance) and the Milice of the Vichy-Régime. The resistance itselve was divided between the official resistance and the more active communist resistance (FTP). The members of this Milice were considered as traitors and some of them have been eliminated by the resistance. Probably the deplaced Lorrains stood under control of the Milice.

2. After the landing in Normandy the 2nd SS Division "Das Reich" move through this region to Normandy, attacked daily by the FTP.

It means that

1. not only the German Army was interested to stop the actions of the FTP, but also the Milice.

2. On the other hand most people were against the german occupation but also not hapyy with the actions and their consequences for the civilians of the communist FTP, who esperated to install a communisrt regime after the liberation of France .

We will now try to describe the role of the different actors

and how the tension was built up that leaded to this drama

1. The 2nd SS-Panzer Division "Das Reich"

Towards the end of 1943 the 2nd SS-Panzer (Armoured) Division, 'Das Reich', was moved from Russia to southern France so that they could be re-equipped and re-trained. One of Das Reich's young officers was Adolf Diekmann who had been severely wounded fighting the French in 1940. He had been shot through the lung and had spent several years as an instructor on light duties at the SS-officer training school at Bad Tölz, before going to Russia in the autumn of 1943. Another officer was Diekmann's friend Helmut Kämpfe, who had spent several years in Russia and had recently won the Knights Cross (Germany's highest award) for his bravery in halting a Russian tank attack.

2. The Resistance of the communist FTP.

When the invasion began on 6th June 1944, the 2nd SS Panzer Division 'Das Reich' (15,000 men aboard 1,400 vehicles, including 209 tanks) under the command of SS General Lammerding, was ordered to move north to Normandy to help the rest of the German army repel the allies and throw them back into the sea. As soon as the SS began to move north they were attacked by the Resistance. At every step along the way they were ambushed and shot at. The Resistance could not do much serious damage to Das Reich, but they could and did irritate the troops a great deal, in the same way that midges can spoil a picnic. Beneath the Official Resistance existed the Communist Resistance, called the FTP, a ruthless group who during the war years killed many French people whom they suspected of working with the Germans.

3. The collaboration of the Vichy Regime and his Milice

So the SS moved also north through the department "Haute Vienne" with his capital Limoges, known for his porcelain. This department lied in the region under the Viche régime of general Pétain. This part of France which was allowed to govern itself was called, Vichy France, because its headquarters were at the spa town of Vichy. The Vichy government had its own ruthless and brutal set of guards called the, Milice and they were absolutely hated by all members of the Official Resistance and the FTP, who regarded them as traitors.

4. 8th June :The FTP lost the battle against the SS Division "Das Reich". 9th June: Massacre in Tulle

The attacks of the Resistance, mainly from the FTP, continued and then on the 8th of June the FTP Resistance tried to liberate the town of Tulle, 70 km south of Limoges,  from the occupying German garrison. In the battle that followed, the FTP came close to capturing all the German troops, but before they could quite finish the job, that evening Das Reich arrived to the rescue. The SS made short work of the undisciplined and poorly armed Resistance fighters, who were soon in full retreat. They found 40 dead bodies of the German 3rd Battalion/95th Security Regiment garrison troops near the school, their bodies badly mutilated. Other bodies were found around the town, bringing the total German dead in Tulle to sixty-four. Next day, the reprisals began. Ninety-nine innocent male citizens  and unic sons of different families were hung up on lamp-posts and from balconies along the main streets of the town in the hope that the hanging bodies would deter future attacks by the Maquis and the FTP. The feelings of the population of Tulle were probably divided, about the amateuristic action of the communist FTP who lead to the killing of their compatriots. Till now this massacre is not mentionned in the touristic brochures of the city.

5. The Ftp continue to attack the german army, which arrived the 9th of June around Limoges.

The same day the SS Division "Das Reich" arrived at Limoges, a town  famous for its porcelain. In the small town, of St. Julien (30 kilometres north from Limoges) the 'Der Führer Regiment' was regrouping. The commanding officer of the 1st Battalion of this SS Regiment was the thirty-two year old SS Sturmbannführer Adolf Diekmann, a survivor of the Russian Front.  The same day some other soldiers were captured by the FTP Resistance. Also Helmuth Kämpfe a close friend to the Adolf Diekmann, was captured and killed. Another could escape and there was said that he mentionned Oradour-sur-Glane, north of Limoges,  as a centre of the Résistance.  Some sources say also that in the morning of the 10th of June Adolf Diekmann has been told by the Milice that his friend Helmuth Kämpfe was murdered by the FTP. So it's possible that the Milice of the Vichy Regime had partly a hand in all this rumours. Also other rumours circulated that gold and other things of value were hidden there by the Resistance in Oradour or that the Résistance would try to take Limoges. In this circonstances not a lot was necessary to lead to another disastre. The consequences will be more cruel than anybody could preview.

6. 10th June. The tragedy at Oradour-sur-Glane.

Just this section of commander Adolf Diekmann then was send to the socalled resistance centre of Oradour-sur-Glane to free the way to Normandy. But the official French version is that there was nothing to find in this quiet village. The soldiers arrived 10th June at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. It has never been cleared out if this was at the beginning an action to kill all the people or just an action taking hostages and under the command of Diekman, under influence of the loosing of his friend Kämpfe,  has resulted into a massacre. It has been said that the Diekman asked first for hostages but that the mayor (F: maire, Nl: burgemeester) refused and that the comander Diekman could n't reach his superiors by phone for instructions. Maybe being without further orders this troop with their Russian experience did it on their Russian way. Whatever allmost all the inhabitants  were killed, woman and children in the church and the men in six barns. As a result of this tragedy the maquis finished her actions and the SS division could without further resistance move to Normandy. But the atrocity of this action was judged exagerated by the German Army and a martial trial was prepared against Adolf Diekmann. In between Adolf Diekmann was send with his division to Normandy, where he was later killed in action in the Normandy battle area on the 29th of June and in the given circonstances no further action for a martial trial was taken.

7. Bordeaux 1953. Trial..

After the war 21 soldiers of the division "Das Reich" were send to trial in Bordeaux in 1953. Seven of them were German soldiers yet in captivity, 14 others came from Elsace and ware living there in liberty. And this was the weak point of the trial:  because the people in command, who ordered this action like Diekmann and Lammerding were not present, so the defence argued that the soldiers and certainly the Elsacian soldiers could do nothing to defeat this action in order to be killed themselve. They could be condamned to death. The reaction in Alsace was violent. They said that they were incorporated involuntary in these SS Division, out of their will: "Malgré Nous" as they said. Some were comdamned to death. But we should understand that at that time the politicians were not interested in a broader discussion of this drama which could divise the Elsacian society or criticise the role of the other parties involved like the communist resistance. So the Elsacian soldiers were then shortly after the trial liberated  to restore the national unity as was said and the rest was free by  1959.

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It's clear that the outcome of this trial has leaved the relatives of the victims unsatisfied. Even the conservation of Oradour as a symbol against this kind of atrocities  or the rename  of Charly to Charly Oradour in memory of the Lorrain victims could only partly milder the pain they feel.  

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References

The official French website for Oradour, it has an English section.

-Ref 1.  Centre de la Mémoire.

I took my information mainly from the website of Michael Williams: michael@oradour.info

 -Ref 2. Oradour-sur-Glane 10th June 1944

He mentions following interesting links: 

-Ref 3. Oradour-sur-Glane. This site is in French (and occasionally English), it is very heavily based on the book, Oradour-sur Glane a vision of horror (see Bibliography).

-Ref 4.  The tragedy which struck Oradour. See there the little Roger Godfrin from Charly, aged eight, escaped from

the massacre of Oradour-surGlane

A second very important link is the website:  "Scrapbookpages.com" :

-Ref 5. http://www.scrapbookpages.com/Oradour-sur-Glane/ : It gives us pictures and the various versions about the tragedy of Oradour-sur-Glane.

- There we find a discussion in relation to the folowing websit, considered as revisionist: -Ref 6.  AAARGH website. This site gives a review  of the evidence offered at the trial in Bordeaux in 1953. This website says that there were a lot of resistants in Oradour-sur-glane and that with the arrival of the german troops some hided themselves in the church. In attempt to force a breakout they did explose the munition hidden in the church. In the confusion that followed started the tragedy of Oradour-sur-Glane.