Today it often hard to imagine how badly some European cities were destroyed during World War II. Most cities and towns were quickly rebuilt after the war but there is one village that has been preserved as a memorial to the victims that once lived in the small village.
On the 10th of June 1944 the French village of Oradour-sur-Glane was destroyed by the Nazi Waffen-SS division. A total of 642 people were massacred as the Nazis burnt the village and shot anyone who dared escape the flames. Following the war, then French President, Charles de Gaulle decided the original village would be left untouched, and that’s how the village stands today.
Often known today as “Le village martyr d’Oradour-sur-Glane” or Martyr Village, the original town sits walled off from the new Oradour-sur-Glane and is located behind a memorial museum called the “Centre de la mémoire d’Oradour” .
Both the village and the museum have become a popular tourist attractions with hundreds of artefacts not only in the museum but also lying around the streets of the village for almost 70 years.
The video above has fantastic shots of the village, in some cases it almost looks like a movies set. The fact that this was once a real town makes this video all the more haunting.
Museum Website http://www.oradour.org/
