A vital examination of one of the most despicable Second World War massacres and a great unsolved war crime that does not shy away from asking the hard questions. The tide had turned. On a warm Saturday in South-West France, just four days after the Allies had landed in Normandy, a small provincial town was existing just as it had done in the four years since France had fallen to Germany. By the end of the afternoon 642 men, women and children had been murdered, their bodies burned and the town pillaged and destroyed by flames. Oradour had Vichy administrators. It had evacuees from Alsace Lorraine, refugees from Spain, Jews in hiding, young men hiding from forced labour. Until 1942 it had been home to a holding work camp for foreigners. Yet witnesses have always claimed it had no links to the Resistance. None of this made any difference; all suffered the same fate. Over the seven decades that followed theories have emerged, none of which have been proven, most of which do not hold up to close examination. The Nazi reasons given for the massacre do not hold up to scrutiny, and there is even the suggestion that this was a Franco-German war crime. In recent decades France has been forced to ask uncomfortable questions about its Vichy past. Now it is time to look at the prelude, circumstances and aftermath of the massacre of Oradour. All avenues will be explored; its communities and its people's stories told. Its place in the history of France's dark years re-considered.
