Photo Gallery Remembering Oradour-sur-Glane
This 2006 image shows the ruins of Oradour-sur-Glane, in central France. On June 10, 1944, just four days after the D-Day landings in Normandy, German troops killed 642 people here, mainly women and children.
That afternoon, the 3rd Company of the 1st Battalion of the "Der Führer" Regiment of the SS "Das Reich" Division rounded up some 450 women and children, forcing them into a church before burning it to the ground. The remaining men in the village were shot to death in barns and garages.
None of the villagers were meant to survive, but a handful managed to escape. The town itself, largely destroyed that day, was never rebuilt. The burnt-out ruins were left standing as a ghostly memorial to the massacre victims. This image shows the village in 1953.
This file image shows a sign in memorial to the victims of the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre. It reads: "Memorial -- A group of men were massacred and burned here by the Germans. Remember this."
One of the two remaining survivors, 86-year old Robert Hébras, told news agency AFP he was "pleasantly surprised" that Germany was still searching for those responsible. Here he is shown in his former home in Oct. 2011.
