75 years later, France commemorated the "massacred innocence" of Oradour-sur-Glane

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It was four days after the D-Day: on June 10, 1944, the village of Oradour-sur-Glane was the macabre theater of the massacre of 642 civilians, including more than 400 women and children, by a hundred soldiers of the 3rd company of the "Der Führer" regiment belonging to the SS division "Das Reich".

"There is something here"

In the village church, where hundreds of civilians were burned, a tribute ceremony was held Monday afternoon. For nearly two and a half hours, official representatives, but also foreign delegations and children from several French and German cities crisscrossed the new town of Oradour-sur-Glane, before heading to the martyred village.

Victor Dhollande-Monnier / Europe 1

For 75 years, the place is frozen in time. It crosses burnt cars and plaques recalling the location of the shops of the time. And every year, many people come to gather in front of these places steeped in history.

Victor Dhollande-Monnier / Europe 1

This is the case of Annette Rigon, whose parents were the only ones to escape the massacre of Oradour-sur-Glane: "It's a day where it hovers something here," she says at the microphone from Europe 1. "I find that despite all these years, there is always that impression, that feeling, I think back to my parents, what they experienced that day, it's inevitable."

The words of the last survivor

For her part, the Secretary of State Geneviève Darrieussecq, paid homage to the "massacred innocence" of Oradour-sur-Glane: "I came to address the affection of a whole nation for this martyred village, for its dead France is still protesting against what happened here. "

The innocence massacred, that's what #Oradour. I have come to address the affection of a whole nation for this martyred village, for its deaths of which they are the guardian. France still protests against what happened here. pic.twitter.com/oXtbJ5zF9a

At the end of this day marked by the many tributes paid to the massacred Oradour-sur-Glane, Robert Hebras, the last survivor of the massacre, addressed the younger generations: "Soon, I will not be there", has said the man, 93 years old. "It will be up to you to remember, I ask you."

See you next year can be said Robert Hebras, the last survivor of the massacre for whom this 75th birthday is very important # oradourpic.twitter.com / 2LKCxh2uYW