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Oradour incident
From Metapedia
Oradour-sur-Glane is a place in France northwest from Limoges, where the Waffen-SS allegedly committed war crimes. This incident has been used as propaganda by the Allies and became favorite theme in Hollywood movies and WWII novels.
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Partisan murders
On June 6, 1944 the Allies invaded France on the beaches of Normandy. The 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich stationed in southern France moved north to engage the invaders. One of their objectives was to secure the area of Limoges, that was the center of partisan activity. On June 9 there were hard fighting in Tulle, that was taken by partisans. That day Group leader Helmut Kämpfe was kidnapped from the head of the tank unit "Der Führer", when he drove in front of his soldiers in a jeep. The next day two Frenchmen reported to the German troops, that in Oradour a high-rank German officer was kidnapped, and said the partisans, known as the Maquis, were planning to kill him publicly and burn his body.
At first the Germans tried to negotiate: let free 30 Maquis, pay 40 thousand francs, guarantee the freedom of the partisans, if they let Kämpfe go free.
Sturmbannführer Adolf Diekmann was commanded to go to the town Oradour with his troops and if they do not find Kämpe, they were to capture Maquis leaders to arrange an exchange. The leader of the partisans refused to negotiate. When the Germans moved into Oradour they found the corpses of murdered German soldiers.
In a burnt-out ambulance six people were brutally killed. The driver and the person besides him was bound to the steering-wheel, as a French officer explained after the war. The partisans killed the ambulance car personal in a bestial way, that was protected by the International Red Cross.
Retaliation
In retaliation to the murders of the German soldiers, the civilians of Oradour were separated. The women and children were placed in the church for protection. The men were kept in local barns to be easily controlled. The Waffen-SS searched the houses and found plenty of weapons and ammunition. Suddenly near the church there was gunfire. Soldiers protecting the barns thought, men in the barns were attacking and they fired onto the barns. Women and children in the church were victims of the weapons of the communist partisan-leader, Guigoin who was still active. He received these weapons from the British, delivered by plane earlier.
Having found weapons in the homes Diekmann ordered to shoot the men as collaborators and 642 men were killed. Houses that contained the weapons were burnt. These actions were under the command of Adolf Diekmann, who had no radio, therefore he was alone responsible for these actions. The troop "Das Reich" started a military inquiry and began interrogating, major Diekmann and the soldiers of the 3rd group. While the fighting was in the Normandy, the process paused. Major Diekmann would later die the battle of the Normandy.
According to French witnesses the Germans did not burn the church, and did not shoot onto women or children, who escaped from the church. The opposite actually happened. German SS soldiers endangering their own lives saved women and children from the burning church. [1]
The death of group leader Kämpfe must have been very brutal. There were such remnants on his skeletons, that because of them the French administration long did not allow his exhumation, that is specified by the Hague court.
This fighting, that was forced by the French declaration of war to the Germans, clearly breaches the 1941 French-German armistice pact, the Hague warfare pact and the international Geneva pact.
In the German Democratic Republic Heinz Barth was condemned to life-long prison because of taking part in the fighting in Oradour. Barth gave a "confession" and repeated the accusations of the prosecutor.
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Literature
- Herbert Taege: Where is Kain? Investigation of Tulle + Oradour (German); Askania-Verlag, Lindhorst 1981
- Vincent Reynouard: The truth about Oradour. A Frenchman reconstructs the facts in 10. June, 1944 (German) (magyarázat (német))
- Der große Wendig: History differently, I-III kötet, Grabert-Verlag Tübingen
- Otto Weidinger: Tulle and Oradour. The truth about the "revenge" of the Waffen SS (explanation (German))
- Lothar Greil: Gloria Mundi (explanation (German))
References
- The truth about Oradour what happened in 10. June, 1944 (German) , Post Scriptum Info Board
- Vincent Reynouard: Oradour June 10-th 1944 (German)
- Otto Weidinger: Tulle és Oradour, the sequence
