World War Two?

Question

Is it only me who is bothered about the war nowadays. people think im a freak just because i can quote famous things that have been said. I seem to be the only one who knows about the tragedy and pointless murder by the Waffen SS in the french town of Oradour-sur-Glane. Having been there you can't help but cry about the sad story that happened there. No one seems to care anymore... I dont want the lost souls of the men, women and children forgotten.

actually its 642 people and do you think its right they are dead?

ive been there and people who lived either werent there or was the woman who managed to escape without being shot at

i would go to a concentration camp but i would be able to move there id freeze up

Answer 1

Hello,

I live very close to ouradour sur glane.. Have you visited the destroyed village ?

Answer 2

You're not the only one. But it's true that many people don't care anymore. Even here in Germany where I live many people seem to feel like it happened ages ago and is no more relevant for them. I don't think so and think 60 years are really not much time and I study World War II and the Holocaust, but the truth is that I have never heard of Oradour-sur-Glane before because you know it happened in so many places all over Europe and esp. in East Europe that it is not even possible to know all of them. They murdered millions of innocent and defenceless people and it was not only the SS that did that, but also the regular German army and police. I visited some of the former concentration camps. Yes, I also don't want the victims to be forgotten.

I don't mean to say that the victims of Oradour were not important and of course it is right that they are remembered. The death of innocent people is always a tragedy. But more than 50 million people died in World War II, many of them civilians. It was such an excessive mass murder that no one can comprehend.

Answer 3

Someone here said "When young men run around armed to the teeth, once they get too weary to think straight & too used to killing then you get Oradour-sur-Glane." I don't think that's right. In every case of this form of barbarity the damage is done by these well armed young men, but it is at the direction of someone that they admire or respect. "War takes an army, but massacre requires a madman."

When you think of the times throughout history that this has happened (and unfortunately there have been many) you invariably find someone the locals call "The Butcher" or "The Devil" or "Sir" or even "Your Highness". Men are not by nature evil enough to commit these sorts of atrocities, but given the proper fervor of speech, the proper words delivered in just the right way at just the right time, men will follow their leaders into the depths of hell before they are aware they have done so. This has been true for centuries and is not likely to change anytime soon. Even with other more rational voices screaming "don't do this" men will follow where they are led to. Look at those poor folks in the Middle East that gladly strap explosive to their bodies and walk into markets to kill innocent people because some leader has convinced them of the "rightness" of this act. No rational man does these things of his own mind, they are convinced by others. Does this excuse their actions, certainly not! but it does explain them.

Are 642 people killed in a conflict with a body count over 62 Million? Perhaps not to the people who tally the numbers, but to the families and friends of the dead it is a very large number indeed. To those touched by this atrocity it is a huge number of souls to be wasted for no purpose.

Nazi Germany contained the largest collection of sick and mentally unstable men the world has ever known, and they were in charge. Their disease spread to those around them and then to those around them and down and down until the man on the street was convinced of the rightness of their actions even though more rational folk were screaming "don't do this".

In the final assessment, Oradour-sur-Glane was a massacre and it should be remembered as one for all time.

It was George Santayana that said "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it" I think some here quoted that, but he also said, "The wisest mind has something yet to learn". All we can do is work to preserve the memories of places like Oradour-sur-Glane and try to ensure that those that are wise among us learn from the errors and atrocities of the past so the constant repeating of horror can finally stop.

Never forget.

Answer 4

On June 10, 1942, the village of Lidice was razed to the ground and its male inhabitants shot. On June 24 over 500 armed Germans surrounded Ležáky, took away all the inhabitants and set the village on fire....all as a response to the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich.

Between May 16th and July 7th, 1944, almost half a million Hungarian Jews are deported from the countryside to Auschwitz. Most are gassed shortly after arrival. Adolf Eichmann plans to kill the entire Jewish population of Budapest in one day...even though the outcome of the war is already known.

Within a few days of capturing Ukrainian cities like Lutsk, Zhitomir and Berdichev in the Summer of 1941 thousands of Jews were killed. A total of 600,000 Ukrainian Jews perished at the hands of special SS execution groups.

The stories of doomed cities, villages and peoples is long.

Answer 5

Good for you harrysparry!
When I was young I considered history to be bunk. Both the First World War and the Second World War had profound affects on the 20th Century. Why shouldn't you be well informed about something which excites your interest; surely, following up detailed research on specific points is the very stuff of history. Don't be too concerned about what others think, but keep up your fine work.

Answer 6

I have been to Oradour. I drove there from my home in England. It is like a terrible moment frozen in history. Everyday life brought to a bloody and chilling end. The doctor's car outside the door. The bicycles ready to be ridden which now lie rusting. The church bells which melted in the fire started by the SS throwing hand grenades into the crowds of women and children seeking sanctuary there. Everyone should visit it to face the reality of what war does to people. "Souviens-toi" it says on a sign as you enter the doomed village. Yes we should remember them. I salute you for your thoughtfulness.

Answer 7

It is not only you. Why do you think there is all this information available everywhere about Adolf Hitler, his constituants, and the women surrounding him. The SS, SA, Gestapo, Holocaust, The medical experiments. The tragedy you named is just that, one tragedy out of a million. They all need to be remembered.

And during World War 1 & 2 70 million people were murdered or killed in combat in Europe.

Answer 8

I`m sure this atrocity was committed in reprisals for the activities of
The Maquis (French resistance).Many more were committed.Have
you heard of the forest massacre at KATYN.Thousands of Poles
ruthlessly murdered.They were the intelligencia to make it more
sad, Doctors ,Academics,Scientists, people who would have made
vast contributions to post war Europe.I think it was the Russians
who did that,although still an element of doubt remains.The Waffen
SS were not alone.What about the RAF and the bombing of Dresden,bit sniffy that one .Fancy bombing a medieval city famed
for it`s pottery,hardly a massive contributer to the NAZI war effort.

Answer 9

I agree, especially as things like this must be learned from. What about the massacre of the Vietnamese village of My Lai by US Marines ? What about the current case in the USA of 14 Iraqis shot by US soldiers who then tried to pass off dead women & children as insurgents ? And I'm sure the Soviets got up to no good in Afghanistan in the 80s & what about the French in Algeria in the 70s etc etc ? When young men run around armed to the teeth, once they get too weary to think straight & too used to killing then you get Oradour-sur-Glane.

Answer 10

Having visited all them places , there use is that they are a stark reminder that brutal people will always be with us, its up to us to make sure that they never get a upper hand as in Muslim fundermentalists who wish to return the world to the stone age to suit there own twisted ideals, when it comes to the crunch, young people will have to put themselves in harms way , or suffer the example of Orandour-sur-glane, or mabe worse, in that one example might be the one thing that they may be willing
to fight for to eradicate monsters who are very much like the nazi,s

Answer 11

I agree with you. I think it's very important not to forget the past as we can learn from past mistakes. Many tragedies are completely forgotten, not many seem to know a great deal about the Falkland's War either and that was fairly recent.