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for Oradour-sur-Glane 10th June 1944
17 A new section titled, "PoW Interrogation transcripts", added to Appendices.
16 ) A new section has been added to the Picture Gallery dealing with the massacre by Das Reich at Marsoulas, also on the 10th June 1944.
15) Heinz Barth died in his home town of Gransee during August 2007, see Chapter 6 of, In a Ruined State for more detail.
14 ) The full transcript (in English) of Otto Kahn's statement made in Dortmund in 1962, where he describes Diekmann as saying that the massacre was to be carried out on orders from above, is now on this website in the Appendices, under the section dealing with Kahn.
13) It is now possible to buy the DVD "Oradour retour sur un massacre" with English sub-titles from the Centre de la Mémoire: see the Bibliography.
12) Photograph of Otto Kahn's grave added, various minor changes throughout the text relating to him and his post-war life.
11) I have now added a transcript of the program, 'Oradour retour sur un massacre' to the Appendices. This is the program which it was claimed in 2003 (by staff at the Centre de la Mémoire) was to show that Oradour was destroyed to orders and indeed some evidence in the program seemed to indicate that this was correct. Before blindly accepting the 'destroyed to orders' version of events, read the full statement made by Otto Kahn in 1962 (shown in the Appendices and mentioned in item 14 above).
10) The official French run website for Oradour was undergoing a re-launch in time for the 1st of February 2006. Initially it is in French only, but English will be supported in due course. See the Links page for details.
9) I have taken more pictures of Oradour-sur-Glane and have now visited all the Oradours of France, details of which have been placed on this website. See Picture gallery and The Oradours of France.
8) There is now a free Aire de Repos (rest area) in Oradour for the use of Camping Cars (Motorcaravans) and Caravans, see How to get there and places to stay, for more details.
7) It may be of interest to some of you to note that the earliest records that I have found for Otto Weidinger, show that he was a concentration camp guard at Dachau in 1934 (see Appendices for details).
6) The official website for Oradour opened initially in French on Sunday 23 February 2003 and from July 2003 has also been available in English, German and Dutch, see the Links page for details. It only gave bare details of the event itself, very little background data and from personal experience, did not seem to reply to email. The English section contained spelling, grammar and translation errors which the Centre de la Mémoire did not seem to want to correct. A good example of an error being in the, "Why Oradour / Reflections" section, where they quoted the Bible as, "Terror is everywhere said the Eternal: Jeremiah Chapter 46 Verse 5". The correct quotation from the King James Bible being: "For fear was round about, saith the Lord". This error and others were reported to the Centre in July 2003, but were never acknowledged or corrected. However those particular errors are no longer relevant as the website has been re-launched without, (to date) showing them.
5) I found out in September 2002 that Roger Godfrin, the youngest survivor of the massacre died in 2001 aged 65. Two of the survivors from the Laudy barn were still alive in 2004, Robert Hébras and Marcel Darthout. Francine, one of the Pinède girls is still alive, her sister Jacqueline and (handicapped) brother André died some years ago.
4) Following the tragic events of 11th September 2001 in America, The USA as you will all know, went to war against terrorism. For terrorist, read un-uniformed fighters belonging to no national army. By mid-January 2002 the first of the captured terrorists were being incarcerated in the American base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
There has been much controversy over the American announcement that these people will not be treated as prisoners of war under the terms of the Geneva Convention on Land Warfare.
What is interesting about the above statement is that following the D-Day landings, actually on 8th June, General Eisenhower broadcast to the Germans the demand that they accept that all members of the French Resistance be accorded combatant status and when captured, be treated as prisoners of war.
3) This section dealing with the euro is now located at How to get there and places to stay.
2) The 26 episodes of, The World at War, are often repeated on television. This documentary series is a favourite with minority interest program schedulers all the world over and wherever you are located, there is the possibility of its being shown. The first episode opens with a brief tour through Oradour-sur-Glane and the last one re-visits the town. Oradour was chosen by the programme makers as a symbol for the horror and tragedy of World War II and the whole series is well worth watching, containing as it does many interviews with survivors from both sides: see Bibliography
1) Philip Beck, with whom I have had correspondence, has published another book in September 2004 on the subject of Oradour titled: Oradour: the death of a village. (see the Bibliography).
© Michael Williams: revised 10 January 2008.