Oradour-sur-Glane
When I think of
spooky places, places haunted by history and events, I often, naively, forget
the remnants of war. In the United
States, it’s easier to slip over the uncomfortable history of loss because so
many of our battles have been fought on foreign soil. We forget, sometimes, what it’s like to live
amid the shadows of the past.
Oradour-sur-Glane, a
little village in France, is frozen forever in its haunted state, a deliberate
attempt to keep tragedy in our minds, hopefully to teach us something.
In 1944, the Nazi’s
descended on the town, bringing with them unspeakable cruelty. No one was spared, not the children or the
elderly, the only survivors, people who were missed or hid, and precious few of
them. The little town was not part of
the fight, but removed from the war.
Most had never even seen a German until the soldiers came. And in one stoke, 642 people were killed, the
buildings burned, remains of inhabitants with them until few bodies were left
to be buried. The aftermath of the
massacre was inexplicable. No one knew
the reason for the brutality of the attack, and it was total. The village was gone, never to be rebuilt.
And so
Oradour-sur-Glane remained. The French
Government decided that they wanted the village as it was, a testament to the
war, its destruction complete. Rubble
frames what once was homes, naked facades with no buildings supporting them,
gates keeping no one out or in. It is a
dead land. People now visit to pay
respect and to honor the innocent that were lost.
The walls are slowly
eroding, crumbling into dust. The
buildings, frozen in destruction, cannot withstand the passage of time and now
the government is being forced to make a decision. Do they push more money into the time forgot
town to save it, or allow the earth to swallow it?
My thanks to: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/03/oradour-sur-glane-nazi-massacre-village
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