The S.S. - Atrocities in World War II
They said we should forget...they said it was a long time ago, and we should move on by now.
That's what the historians would be saying, wouldn't they?
Europeans, some of them, never forget. Germans never forget, some of them pretend to forget, and some pretend they never knew. Most Americans I meet on a twice weekly basis don't have a clue, not even a hint as to what happened in Europe 70 years ago.
To all of us who know, who care, who heard the rumors, who WANT to know...it happened. To those who are dying to know but have never been there, hear this:
http://www.oradour-sur-glane/
In mid 1944 the Nazi SS hit the town, killed everyone there. They lined the men against the church wall that you will see in the photographs and shot them. Their women they raped, then, with the children, grandparents and others, herded into that church, locked the doors, sprayed the insides with machine guns and burned the place to the ground.
They killed everything in Oradour that was breathing, everything: cats, dogs, cows, kids - everything. In mid 1944, the Germans knew they were losing, they were retreating, it was a war of attrition for them, and they killed everything in sight, just for the hell of it.
Mr. James Sanford of London dropped by my museum in Tucson and gave me the website address and discussed it with me. Oradour is still there, left untouched by the French since the day the SS left. Sanford drives through it when he and the Mrs go through towards his yearly vacation spot in the wine country in southern France. After 20 years, he says, he still hasn't got used to it.
Oh, by the way, the SS STILL has yearly conventions in the mountains in Austria, I am told. Cheers.
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That's what the historians would be saying, wouldn't they?
Europeans, some of them, never forget. Germans never forget, some of them pretend to forget, and some pretend they never knew. Most Americans I meet on a twice weekly basis don't have a clue, not even a hint as to what happened in Europe 70 years ago.
To all of us who know, who care, who heard the rumors, who WANT to know...it happened. To those who are dying to know but have never been there, hear this:
http://www.oradour-sur-glane/
In mid 1944 the Nazi SS hit the town, killed everyone there. They lined the men against the church wall that you will see in the photographs and shot them. Their women they raped, then, with the children, grandparents and others, herded into that church, locked the doors, sprayed the insides with machine guns and burned the place to the ground.
They killed everything in Oradour that was breathing, everything: cats, dogs, cows, kids - everything. In mid 1944, the Germans knew they were losing, they were retreating, it was a war of attrition for them, and they killed everything in sight, just for the hell of it.
Mr. James Sanford of London dropped by my museum in Tucson and gave me the website address and discussed it with me. Oradour is still there, left untouched by the French since the day the SS left. Sanford drives through it when he and the Mrs go through towards his yearly vacation spot in the wine country in southern France. After 20 years, he says, he still hasn't got used to it.
Oh, by the way, the SS STILL has yearly conventions in the mountains in Austria, I am told. Cheers.
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