Limoges (AFP)
Negationist tags at the entrance to the ruins of the martyred village of Oradour-sur-Glane (Haute-Vienne) have provoked indignation in recent hours to the highest summit of the State, Emmanuel Macron promising that "everything will be done "to find their authors.
The inscriptions were discovered "Friday at the opening" on the memory center of this village where on June 10, 1944, the SS Das Reich division killed 642 villagers, told the president of the center, Fabrice Escure, to the AFP. "It's general indignation," he continues.
A photo taken by the People of the Center shows the facade of the memory center, with the word "martyr" striped in white paint, a blue tarp covering the rest of the inscription.
"That we cross out the word martyr, that we put a liar and the name of a revisionist instead, you understand that we are shocked", added the mayor of Oradour-sur-Glane, Philippe Lacroix.
A complaint was filed on Saturday morning, Fabrice Escure said and an investigation is underway. It will be able to rely on surveillance cameras. "The gendarmes will see if they can get something out of it," he said.
On June 10, 1944, the Germans had gathered the men in the village barns and shot them and gathered women and children in the church before setting it on fire.
President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday promised that "Everything will be done" to prosecute the authors of the tags.
The Head of State "condemns with the greatest firmness this unspeakable act. He gives his full support to the mayor and the municipality. He assures them that everything will be done so that the perpetrators of this act are brought to justice", press release from the Elysee.
"To sully this place of meditation is also to sully the memory of our martyrs," Prime Minister Jean Castex regretted on Friday evening.
The Minister Delegate for Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, former deputy for the second district of Haute-Vienne, was to go there at the end of the afternoon.
- A milestone crossed -
If negationist videos have already circulated concerning Oradour-sur-Glane, such inscriptions had never been seen, say local authorities.
"There is always a temptation to revisit history", but "revisionist tags, that has never been the case," said the mayor.
"This time, we have the impression of having taken a step up," lamented the president of the memory center.
"What is pleasant for us is to receive messages of support from everywhere, it shows that the duty of memory is anchored", continued Fabrice Escure.
The reactions of the political class were unanimous on Saturday. The leader of La France insoumise Jean-Luc Mélenchon said he was "disgusted by the profanation". "No forgetting or forgiveness," he adds on Twitter.
The national secretary of the Communist Party Fabien Roussel was "indignant and repulsed". "Holocaust denial is as much a barbarism as was that of Nazism."
The socialist president of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Alain Rousset, speaks of "unworthy and cowardly" acts in a press release. "This should encourage us to maintain the memory of this place and its history before all the more force" he continues.
On the right, the deputy LR Eric Ciotti calls "not to trivialize such acts and to strengthen the transmission of this memory", on Twitter.
On the far right, for Marine Le Pen, "it would be time to tighten up the screw to stop this upsurge in acts which are deeply shocking".
The memory center, which explains to visitors to the ruins of the martyr village - about 300,000 people each year - the background to the massacre, has remained open. "There are a lot of people today" Saturday, said Fabrice Escure.
Now it remains to restore the facade "quickly, without damaging the structure", he concluded.
© 2020 AFP