The left-wing mayor of Villeneuve-d'Ascq (North), Gerard Caudron, said Friday his "disgust" at the "ignoble" remarks made by the former SS Karl Münter about the massacre of Ascq in 1944.
On the night of April 1 to 2, 1944, 86 civilians had been murdered by SS at Ascq, now integrated village in Villeneuve-d'Ascq (North), in retaliation for the derailment of a train attacked by resistance.
In a report broadcast on Thursday on the German channel ARD , ex-SS Karl Münter, pardoned by René Coty and now 96, says he has "no regrets" about his participation in the killing.
The left-wing mayor of the city, Gerard Caudron, said Friday his "disgust" at the "ignoble " remarks made by the former SS about the massacre of Ascq in 1944.
"If they run away, I have the right to shoot them"
"If I stop the men, then I have the responsibility. And if they run away, I have the right to shoot them. Too bad for them ! " He said, according to statements translated in the press.
This declaration "provokes in the mayor that I am, among the Ascquois and among the Villeneuvois, a feeling and a reaction of incommensurable disgust! " Reacted Gerard Caudron in a statement.
The mayor of Villeneuve-d'Ascq wants to write in particular to President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to "denounce without delay or reservations such despicable statements, which arrogantly deny massacres committed by the Nazis and their accomplices in Europe during the Second World War ".