Oradour-sur-Glane, Memorial village in Haute-Vienne, France

Oradour-sur-Glane is a commune in the Haute-Vienne department of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, consisting of the new village and the preserved ruins of the old village centre. The burned buildings, rusted vehicle wrecks and shattered windowpanes remain untouched, while overgrown streets lead to empty houses, the church and the old school.

German Waffen-SS troops destroyed the village completely on June 10, 1944, killing 642 inhabitants including almost all women and children of the commune. The French government decided after the war to leave the ruins as a national memorial and build a new village nearby.

The Centre de la mémoire d'Oradour, opened next to the ruins, was created on the initiative of Jean-Claude Peyronnet and serves as the link between the ruined village and the new one rebuilt a few hundred metres away. Robert Hébras, one of the last survivors of the 10 June 1944 massacre, long spoke to visiting groups here. The village is twinned in memory with Lidice, the Czech village destroyed by Nazi forces in 1942.

The memorial site lies roughly 22 kilometers (14 miles) northwest of Limoges and is accessible via a signposted route that helps visitors orient themselves. The grounds span several streets and squares, so visitors should plan enough time to walk through all areas at a comfortable pace.

The SS officer Adolf Diekmann had meant to destroy Oradour-sur-Vayres, whose inhabitants were said to shelter the Maquis, but took a wrong turn and reached Oradour-sur-Glane, whose people had never supported the resistance. Of the 642 killed, only about ten survived, some by pretending to be dead; Robert Hébras, born here in 1925, was among them and died in 2023.