Preliminary note: The second part of this post describes an atrocity that occurred late in WWII involving the citizens of a small town in France and troops of a German SS battalion.
It’s disturbing.
If reading that information would be a concern of yours, you may want to stop reading now or after you reach the end of Part 1.
Part 1
I’d like to share some thoughts on a recently-released hour-long television show discussing the rise of fascism in Europe and share some photos of my visit to a small town in France where the devastating effects of fascism on what was the civilian population of the town are kept painfully visible by leaving the evidence of the atrocity in place for anyone who visits to see.
As many of you may know, Rick Steves is a fairly famous travel guide author, tour guide, travel entrepreneur, television personality, and activist from the northern Seattle suburb of Edmonds. He also has hosted a radio show on public radio for over a decade and has been active in furthering efforts to legalize marijuana in the U.S. as well as using some of the profits from his businesses to give shelter to homeless mothers and their children.
Through his decades of arranging tours of various European destinations for American and Canadian travelers he has, since 1997, written and starred in a half-hour television series produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting that has become the longest-running and most-watched travel show on public television.
Some may find his style a bit goofy at times. I certainly do. But it’s clear that, in reality, he is an earnest and driven individual.
On occasion, Mr. Steves produces special hour-long shows to highlight certain topics. Public television stations often televise these shows as part of their periodic fundraisers. You may have seen them.
For example, he has produced special shows on such topics as:
- European Festivals
- Iran: Yesterday and Today
- Luther and the Reformation (Mr. Steves is a practicing Lutheran)
- A Symphonic Journey (Mr. Steves is a former piano teacher)
...among many others.
Generally, his focus is on matters of cultural, religious, or artistic distinction. Occasionally he describes the natural history of an area, but that’s usually not his focus.
The Iran special, which was filmed outside his usual geography, dove a bit into politics, but other than that, perhaps the most political comment he has made in his shows is when he highlights the (relatively enlightened) way in which some European countries (such as Portugal and Holland) manage drugs that are illegal in the U.S., especially marijuana.
He’s generally blandly non-political in his television shows.
Until, that is, this autumn.
In September, Mr. Steves released a special show entitled Fascism in Europe. It attempts to tell, from a non-historian’s perspective, the story of how and why fascism developed in Spain, Italy, and Germany; the means by which it gained and solidified its power; and the ultimate fate of those who led these fascist governments.
I’m certain those who are expert in 20thcentury European history could find nits to pick among the statements and generalizations contained in this program, but I encourage anyone interested in that history to watch it, either online or by catching it when your local public television station broadcasts it.
One might ask: after over 20 years of producing fairly light-hearted but highly successful TV shows and related specials on travel in Europe, why would Mr. Steves suddenly decide, at this moment of all moments, to focus on a spectacularly failed but highly dangerous political ideology from nearly a century ago? What possible relevance could it have to his primary audience – that is, Americans – in today’s world?
I don’t know Mr. Steves’ motivations. I can only guess.
My guess is informed by some of the closing statements he elected to include of his own and from the various people he interviewed during the course of his special.
Let’s review:
Rick Steves:
A common refrain in these memorials (of WWII atrocities) is “never again.” But even today, in well-established Democracies throughout the west, societies are facing many of the same emotions, frustrations, and inequities that, a century ago, opened the door to fascism in Europe.
Comment: I can think of one in particular; a particularly well-established democratic republic.
From Georg Reichlmayr, a German author and tour guide:
Fascism happened here in Germany, the center of civilization, in the land of Beethoven, Goethe, and Schiller. And if it could have happened here, it can happen anywhere in the world.
From Holger Zimmer, a German tour guide who Mr. Steves describes as a cultural connoisseur and public radio journalist:
If I ask myself "could it happen again?" I would say no…but it has happened in Germany, and it might happen again.
Because if you know what mechanisms were working and what mechanisms of economy and politics were at play in the 1920s and '30s then you can see what is happening today and try to prevent it.
Comment: I think we’ve all seen diaries examining the mechanisms of politics that have reached recent currency in the U.S. over the last few years.
From Francesca Caruso, an Italian tour guide:
So, if you bring all of these elements together, a moment of crisis, a strong leader who knows how to take advantage of the fear and you don't have a really true press where there's no exchange of opinions, I think there's a possibility for these things to happen again.
From Andreas Clemens, a German filmmaker:
In Germany we definitely believe that education is one of the main ways to make sure something like this will not be repeated.
One of the things that you can do to make sure that something like this will not happen again here or in other countries is not trust people that promise very easy answers for very complicated problems. It never works.
Francesca Caruso:
Education is everything. Even for there to be an electorate that is capable of thinking independently, you need that electorate to be educated.
When there's great fear of the future, where what people feel threatened and they're afraid to lose it, then it's easy for populism to come into play, and it's easy for leaders who present themselves as interpreters of that to take hold.
Democracy is fragile, and it should not be taken for granted, so to defend it I think is important. I think we can learn not to follow leaders into the abyss and to maintain critical independent thinking.
Comment: reading these comments about education and knowledge reminded me of this recent Daily Kos diary.
Rick Steves’ closing monologue is as follows:
As we've seen through the story of fascism in Europe, charismatic leaders rose to power through the democratic process and then seized extra-constitutional power by unlawful means. When citizens allowed leaders to do this, individual freedoms and rights soon fell by the wayside, and democracy was lost.
While democracy was restored to Western Europe, it easily could have been lost forever — and the cost was millions of lives. As history continues to unfold around us today, it's important to remember that freedom and democracy are not guaranteed. We are all participants and we are all responsible.
The story of fascism in Europe has taught us that strong and charismatic leaders can capitalize on fear to lead a society astray. Democracy is fragile. It requires a vigilant and engaged populace. And if you take freedom for granted, you can lose it. Thanks for joining us. I'm Rick Steves. Until next time, travel thoughtfully.
I think the implications are pretty clear. I live in Europe now, but I grew up in the U.S., lived there most of my life, and I watch the news about what is happening with the political figures lording over today’s U.S. with a mixture of disgust and horror.
Part 2
The reason this topic spoke to me at this time, beyond my longstanding discomfort with the current state of politics in the U.S., is because my wife and I visited a place not long ago here in France where we had the profoundly sad privilege of seeing and learning about the work of fascists. The work of Nazis. In other words, the work of those people too many on the fringes of the right wing in the U.S. seem to want to emulate.
I’m certain some of you reading this are familiar with the events that occurred there on 10 June 1944. Perhaps there are some who are not — it is for them I’ve written the text below.
Background
The place where this event occurred is a small town in rural western France called Oradour-sur-Glane. For those unfamiliar with French, the root of the town’s name is Oradour (from Occitan, an ancient Romance language of southern France, Italy, and Spain, which derived its word orador from the Latin term oratorium, a place of [in this case, religious] oratory). It’s sur (meaning on, in this case, on the banks of) the river Glane. So, in English, the town name means a place of religious oratory on the banks of the river Glane.
Oradour-sur-Glane lies a little more than 23 kilometers (14 miles) west-northwest of Limoges, a city renowned for its porcelain industry.
This was a peaceful and apparently prosperous rural village of a few hundred people that had existed since the 11th century. Its population in the mid-1940s had swelled to nearly 1,000 because it had absorbed refugee families from the civil war in what had at that time become Franco’s Spain, refugees from French Lorraine, a northeastern part of France that had been annexed by Germany as part of its invasion in 1940, and some Jewish families escaping the occupied region around Paris. Beyond that, up until June 1944, Oradour-sur-Glane was essentially untouched by war.
But there was French Resistance activity in the larger area. In particular, the maquis, the French term for Resistance fighters, had launched at least five attacks on German soldiers in the general area of Limoges on June 8 and 9, 1944. During that time, in the confusing days immediately after the Allied landings on Normandy, German field commanders around Limoges reportedly received unclear and at times conflicting orders, some urging them to move north and join the battle for Normandy, others to intervene and retaliate for resistance attacks in the Limoges area.
As German forces, responding to these latter orders, advanced to take retribution on Tulle, a town south of Limoges and the site of known Resistance activity, one regimental commander, SS-Sturmbannführer Adolf Diekmann, was distinguished by, according to eyewitness testimony, being the only commander to deliberately attack women and especially children.
What happened in the next few days is fairly well known from survivor’s testimony, documents obtained after Germany’s defeat, and trial testimony after the war. Some details differ (Was it tear gas or a smoke bomb in the church? Was an infant really crucified, as reported by American Airman Raymond Murphy who had been shot down in the area, protected by the maquis, and shown the aftermath of the massacre so he could report it upon his return to England?). Despite some uncertainty on details, the general outline of events is known.
The triggering event seems to have been the capture by the maquis (the German Army would have said kidnapping) of SS-Sturmbannführer Helmut Kämpfe, commander of the 2nd SS Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion, which was part of the same unit as Diekmann’s. His body was found later in a town near Limoges.
In an effort to retaliate and subdue the local population, the German military decided to make an example of one of the towns in the area. That misfortune fell on Oradour-sur-Glane, and the commander assigned to lead the effort was SS-Sturmbannführer Adolf Diekmann, who was mentioned earlier in this diary His troops included many German soldiers from the Eastern Front, including, amazingly, some originally from the occupied French Alsace Region.
Some German testimony in trials after the war attempted to claim that this town was selected because of a weapons cache hidden there; a claim that was denied by survivors and that appears to have no documentary basis. Others claimed that it was a hotbed of Resistance activity -- another claim that seems to have no documentary evidence. Still another claim was that a similarly named town with known Resistance fighters (Oradour-sur-Vayres), located 35 kilometers (22 miles) southwest of Oradour-sur-Glane was the actual target but that an error led to Oradour-sur-Glane being selected. Historians find that claim unlikely.
Some believe the village would have been chosen not for what it was, but for the demoralizing effect its destruction would have been on the people and local authorities of the region. In addition to its location near Limoges and its small size, which made its rapid destruction relatively easy, the reported presence of Jewish refugees and foreigners, suspected to be Spanish Communists, also served as a draw for the German troops. According to Wikipedia’s French language article on the massacre, historian Pascal Plas believes that the choice of Oradour-sur-Glane was deliberate and had no connection with the presence of maquis (Resistance fighters). Rather, it was chosen specifically because “to massacre a population in a determined time, there must be no resistance. And precisely, Oradour is away from the main zones of Resistance.“
What happened was this: the SS arrived at the town, separated the men over age 14 from women and children, and then implemented an unbelievably cruel plan to kill them all.
Every last one.
A total of 642 men, women, children, and infants, some only days old, all of whom were living their lives in a quiet rural town far from the war, were murdered over the course of about 4 hours.
Through effort, fortune, and oversight, a few survivors – five men and one woman – escaped to tell what happened.
The methods used by the soldiers reportedly were those perfected during the invasion of the USSR on the Eastern Front. Who knows how many countless people in countless towns there suffered a similar fate?
The events of 10 June 1944
The first step was for the SS cars, trucks, and armored personnel carriers to enter the town and simultaneously encircle it to prevent civilian escape. Townspeople were then rounded up and marched to the town’s fairgrounds under the pretense of doing a routine check of identity documents; supposedly to look for suspected Resistance fighters. There were random shootings and killings during the effort to corral the town’s population. But, for the most part, the townspeople peacefully complied, not imagining what the soldiers had planned.
The map summarizes what happened next, sequentially, one through six.
(Note: when I view this it looks very small — too small to read. In older versions of Daily Kos, I knew how to change the size of images, but I cannot do that in this current version. The original image is large enough to easily read but it was automatically reduced in size when I uploaded it. If anyone can tell me how to adjust the size to be readable, I would greatly appreciate it.)
The men, males 14 and older, were the first to be targeted. They were split into groups of about 30 people each, placed into six different locations (generally barns or auto garages around the town) and then murdered.
Locations where this slaughter happened included barns owned by Monsieurs Milord, Bouchoule, and Laudy, an auto garage owned by Monsieur Désourteaux, as well as a blacksmith shop owned by Monsieur Beaulieu. These locations are depicted on the map.
Survivors attest that the men held in these six locations first were shot in the legs so they could not escape, then as they lie writhing in agony on the ground, they either were doused with gasoline or covered with wood, straw, or other combustible fuel and set afire to burn away whatever life remained in them. Six men managed to escape their murderers. One of these was shot and killed but the other five, knowing the area better than the German soldiers, were able to find a way to avoid detection and escaped.
The elderly, the women, and the children were herded into the town’s church. The Germans set up machine gun installations around the church to cover its exits, and then a smoke bomb of some type was set off inside the church. Some accounts describe this as tear gas.
When some women and children tried to escape the suffocating smoke, they were mowed down by machine gun fire as they ran through the doorways. Based on the visible bullet pock marks on the church altar, it’s evident that some soldiers entered the church to fire directly on the terrified victims huddled there. Next, hand grenades and then incendiary devices were thrown into the church to kill and burn the remaining victims.
Before the church was set afire, one woman, who had been wounded by gunfire in the legs and shoulder, crawled behind the altar and came across a ladder hidden there that was used for reaching and lighting candles. Obscured by the smoke, she was able to raise the ladder, reach one of the windows behind the altar, and pull herself out, falling to the ground beside the outside wall of the church. As she lay hidden in vegetation trying to determine a way to escape, another woman carrying an infant appeared at the window. She was shot and killed by soldiers but, before collapsing, she dropped the infant into the arms of the woman outside. The baby already was dead from bullet wounds when the escaped woman caught his body.
As the church went up in flames, the Germans pillaged and burned the rest of the town, partly in an attempt to prevent victims from being identified. A wine warehouse owned by Monsieur Denis on the north end of town was a key target of looting.
Aftermath
The ruins of Oradour-sur-Glane have become a memorial to the victims of WWII, left undisturbed in accordance with former French President DeGaulle’s wishes. There’s an interpretative museum that describes the origins of the war as well as the events that happened here, and the ruins of the old town are a silent memorial to the victims of war (a new Oradour-sur-Glane has been built nearby for the local inhabitants).
Below are some photos taken before and after these events.
To the right is a photo of what was the interior of one of the garages showing many rusted car bodies. I was puzzled by how many automobiles were present in such a small, rural town. Cars were not that common then, especially in a rural town served by a tramway to a large city such as Limoges.
I later learned that many wealthy residents of Limoges had hidden their cars in these garages, hoping they would be overlooked in an obscure town of no significance, so they wouldn’t be stolen by the German troops occupying Limoges.
I believe this is the garage owned by
M. Désourteaux. That’s the same last name as Dr. Désourteaux, who owned the Peugeot depicted in the image at the head of this diary. Evidently, the Désourteaux family was quite prominent at that time in the town.
The image to the left is the exterior of the church. One can see the iron crucifix still standing.
The sign on the wall reads:
Church of Oradour-sur-Glane
Silence
Here hundreds of women and children were massacred by the Nazis.
You who pass, reflect on your thoughts.
You who believe, pray for the victims and their families.
In the village only ruins remain standing.
Outside, Christ on the cross.
Inside, our lady of Lourdes, Saint Bernadette
Come to me you who suffer says the Christ
Do what He tells you says the Virgin
Requiescat in pace (Latin for rest in peace),
May they rest in peace
Because they are alive in eternity
The image to the right is of the church bell. It had apparently crashed to the floor as the wooden framework supporting it in the bell tower was consumed by flames. The melted mass is large — probably 4 feet left to right.
The condition of the bell testifies to the intensity of the fire the Nazis set in the church. It was hot enough to partially melt bell metal (an alloy of mostly copper and tin with a melting point of around 1,000 to 1,100 degrees C, or 1,800 to 2,000 degrees F) but not hot enough to melt the clapper, which appears to be made of iron and would have a melting point ranging from 1,200 to 1,280 degrees C, or 2,200 to 2,300 degrees F.
The town’s church is small by French standards. I had trouble understanding how hundreds of women, children, and the elderly could be jammed into it at once. It’s unimaginable for me.
I’ll close my images with this one to the right. It’s a carved image of a person, common in French churches, cathedrals, and basilicas, and is situated in such a way so as to seem to gaze solemnly down on those worshiping in the church. For his sake, thank goodness his eyes were of stone, so he couldn’t see what transpired that afternoon before him.
Closing
According to Wikipedia, the British documentary television series entitled The World at War began and ended with these words, narrated by Sir Laurence Olivier:
Down this road, on a summer day in 1944 the soldiers came. Nobody lives here now. They stayed only a few hours. When they had gone, a community, which had lived for a thousand years, was dead.
This is Oradour-sur-Glane, in France. The day the soldiers came, the people were gathered together. The men were taken to garages and barns, the women and children were led down this road and they were driven into this church. Here, they heard the firing as their men were shot. Then they were killed too.
A few weeks later, many of those who had done the killing were themselves dead, in battle.
They never rebuilt Oradour. Its ruins are a memorial. Its martyrdom stands for thousand upon thousand of other martyrdoms in Poland, in Russia, in Burma, China, in a World at War.
Reading of an event such as this is depressing and would strain anyone’s ability to imagine it. But through the decades since their murder by fascist soldiers, I would think, if they could, the people of the old Oradour-sur-Glane might implore us to be vigilant so that no other community should suffer their fate, though of course others have, from Vietnam to Rwanda to Serbia and beyond. But that history doesn’t mean we cannot try, going forward, to prevent the establishment and spread of such cruelty in the future.
I’ll close by repeating this passage from Rick Steves:
The story of fascism in Europe has taught us that strong and charismatic leaders can capitalize on fear to lead a society astray. Democracy is fragile. It requires a vigilant and engaged populace. And if you take freedom for granted, you can lose it.
This, I think, is a message we should all bear in mind during these turbulent times. As citizens, our greatest collective power rests in our vote. The people of Oradour-sur-Glane didn’t have that power, surprised as they were by an invading force.
We Americans still do.
And there is an election fast approaching.
Note: The material in this diary is drawn from the French-language and English-language Wikipedia pages on this topic, from material I obtained at the Oradour-sur-Glane Memorial Center, from some further reading from the web on related topics, and from photographs either from Memorial Center documents or from my camera. The map is from the French Wikipedia page on the massacre, edited and translated by me into English, and with a corrected time for events at the church to reflect documentation from the Oradour-sur-Glane Memorial Center, which I weighed as more authoritative than Wikipedia.