Ossuary & bones of Oradour-sur-Glane
martyrs
The photo above shows the Ossuary, a
tall column that contains the ashes of the unidentified victims
of the massarce in Oradour-sur-Glane on 10 June 1944. The monument
was financed by one of the survivors who lost his whole family
in the massacre; it was paid for by donations. Originally, the
remains were to be placed in a crypt that was built by the State,
but the families of the survivors rejected this plan after a
trial in 1953 in which the convicted perpetrators were granted
amnesty.
In the foregound are two glass-topped
coffins containing bones, which are the relics of the martyred
victims. They are called martyrs because they were innocent French
civilians who died at the hands of the German barbarians, murdered
for no reason at all by maurading soldiers who plundered the
town and then burned all the buildings. The bodies of only 52
of the 642 victims were ever identified; the others were officially
declared missing and presumed dead.
The photo below shows a closeup of the
coffin on the left side of the Ossuary with the coffin on the
right side in the background. The second photo below shows a
closer view of the coffin on the right side.
The photo above shows the bones of the
unidentified victims, preserved under glass in a coffin. In the
background are small memorial plaques placed there by the grieving
relatives of the martyrs.
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