Oradour-sur-Glane

Last Sunday I visited the ruins of Oradour-sur-Glane, near Limoges France, where the SS murdered the whole population on June 10 1944, four days after the landings in Normandy.

The village has never been rebuilt and the ruins remain as a stark and extremely moving reminder of the bestiality of mankind. 644 people, of which more than 200 childeren, were murdered in cold blood and the village was burned to the ground.

Words cannot describe the emotional impact this visit had on me - the sight of the ruins and the mass grave moved me to tears. I knew the story, but visiting the spot, 63 years after the terrible events, still evoked very powerfull emotions. Over two hundred childeren butchered, the youngest barely a couple of days old ...

In a first reaction I thought that such an act continues to cry for revenge on the Nazis (there still are lots of them around, believe me - I met some of them !) especially because the monsters guilty of this crime have never been adequately punished.

But then, under the pure blue sky of Oradour, I had to remind myself that the Nazis were not the only ones to commit such bestialities - although no beast is capable of such crime !

Smaller and bigger Oradours have happened since and continue to happen : think about Srebrenica, Sabra and Shatila, Iraq, Palestine, Somalia and so many, many other places. And let us not forget September 11 2001, which I also remembered during my tour of France.

Shall we ever learn ?