Oradour-sur-Glane
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Oradour-sur-Glane
Orador de Glana (Occitan) | |
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 Oradour-sur-Glane Town Hall | |
 Coat of arms | |
 Location of Oradour-sur-Glane | |
  Oradour-sur-Glane  Oradour-sur-Glane | |
| Coordinates: 45°55′58″N 1°01′57″E / 45.9328°N 1.03250°E | |
| Country | France |
| Region | Nouvelle-Aquitaine |
| Department | Haute-Vienne |
| Arrondissement | Rochechouart |
| Canton | Saint-Junien |
| Government | |
| • Mayor (2020–2026) | Philippe Lacroix[1] |
Area 1 | 38.16 km2 (14.73 sq mi) |
| Population (2023)[2] | 2,550 |
| • Density | 66.8/km2 (173/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| INSEE/Postal code | 87110 /87520 |
| Elevation | 227–312 m (745–1,024 ft) (avg. 285 m or 935 ft) |
| 1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. | |
Oradour-sur-Glane (French pronunciation: [ɔʁaduʁ syʁ ɡlan]; Occitan: Orador de Glana) is a commune in the Haute-Vienne department, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, west central France, as well as the name of the main village within the commune. It had a population of 2,477 as of 2019.[3]
The original village of Oradour-sur-Glane was destroyed and its inhabitants massacred by German soldiers during World War II. It was subsequently left in its destroyed state as a memorial.
History
[edit]The original village was destroyed on 10 June 1944, four days after D-Day, when 642 of its inhabitants, including 207 children, were massacred by a company of troops belonging to the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich, a Waffen-SS unit of the military forces of Nazi Germany.[4][5] There were only 10 survivors, who escaped by pretending to be dead.[5] SS Sturmbannführer Adolf Diekmann, the commanding officer of the Der Führer regiment of the Das Reich division, had wanted to destroy another French town, Oradour-sur-Vayres, whose people were said to be providing food and shelter to the Maquis, but had taken a wrong turn on the road, which led him and his men to Oradour-sur-Glane, whose people had never supported the Maquis.[6]
A new village was built after the war on a nearby site, but on the orders of President Charles de Gaulle, the original has been maintained as a permanent memorial.[4] The Center de la mémoire d'Oradour museum is situated adjacent to the historic site.[7]
The massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane bookends the documentary series The World at War, the first and final episodes showing images of the ruined village.[citation needed]
Personalities linked to the commune
[edit]- Robert Hébras (29 June 1925 – 11 February 2023) was one of the six survivors of the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre on 10 June 1944.
- Jean-Claude Peyronnet (born 1940), French politician and creator of the Centre of the Memory of Oradour-sur-Glane.
- Sébastien Puygrenier (born 1982) began his football career at US Oradour-sur-Glane, where his father and his uncles had played.
- Didier Barbelivien (born 1954), a French singer-songwriter, paid tribute to Oradour in his song "Les amants d'Oradour".
Geography
[edit]The municipality borders Javerdat, Cieux, Peyrilhac, Veyrac, Saint-Victurnien and Saint-Brice-sur-Vienne.
Demographics
[edit]Historical population | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Source: EHESS[8] and INSEE[9] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Gallery
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Map showing modern and former village -
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Details of rails and catenary of the tramway. -
Post office
See also
[edit]- Lidice, a Czech village destroyed by Nazi forces in 1942
References
[edit]- ^ "Répertoire national des élus: les maires". data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises (in French). 2 December 2020.
- ^ "Populations de référence 2023" (in French). National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. 18 December 2025.
- ^ "Oradour-sur-Glane". nouvelle-aquitaine.fr. Retrieved 11 April 2026.
- ^ a b Gentry, Connie (7 November 2018). "Oradour-sur-Glane: Martyred Village". The National WWII Museum. Retrieved 11 April 2026.
- ^ a b "Oradour-sur-Glane | France, Massacre, Map, & World War II | Britannica". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 11 April 2026.
- ^ Ousby, Ian (2000) [1999]. Occupation: The Ordeal of France, 1940–1944. New York: Cooper Square Press. ISBN 978-0-7126-6513-1.
- ^ Stephan Martens, ed. (2007). La France, l'Allemagne et la seconde guerre mondiale. Quelles mémoires? (in French). Presses universitaires de Bordeaux. p. 213. ISBN 9782867814327.
- ^ Des villages de Cassini aux communes d'aujourd'hui: Commune data sheet Oradour-sur-Glane, EHESS (in French).
- ^ Population municipale entre 1968 et 2023, INSEE
Bibliography
[edit]
- Farmer, Sarah. Martyred Village: Commemorating the 1944 Massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane. University of California Press, 2000.
- Fouché, Jean-Jacques. Massacre At Oradour: France, 1944; Coming To Grips With Terror, Northern Illinois University Press, 2004.
- Penaud, Guy. La "Das Reich" 2e SS Panzer Division (Parcours de la division en France, 560 pp), Éditions de La Lauze/Périgueux. ISBN 2-912032-76-8
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