On 10 June 1944, the population of the Limousin market town of Oradour-sur-Glane was massacred by a troop of around 200 Waffen SS. the men were separated from the women and children and were simultaneously executed in various places close to the town. The women and children were enclosed in the church and were massacred by gas, grenades and other explosives before being machine-gunned. The church was then set alight, the village pillaged and burnt and, in a few hours, reduced to ruins.

Maintained in this condition since Liberation, the site bears witness to Nazi atrocities and the necessity to remember as homage to the 642 victims of this abject crime. A memorial and a place of recollection, the Oradour-sur-Glane martyr village and Memorial Centre thrusts us into reflecting upon the atrocity that is war.