Oradour sur Glane

[percy toboggan]

A very short film about Oradour.... and motor-cycling down to see it.
A place which encourages one to contemplate the barbarism, not too far away from these shores less than a lifetime ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iT3Dv5mUKo

[helenwyler]

Thanks percy.

A chilling memoriam, very moving.

Thanks for your American footage too...I enjoyed those and forgot to say thank you!

[Bobinovich]

Thanks for that Percy. There's also a very informative website at http://www.oradour.info/ if anyone wants more in-depth information.

So sad

[percy toboggan]

thanks to both of you for looking - and for the link Bob.
Helen - I'm about to start some Scottish road movies,purely
for mi own amusement (new hobby!) and will stick 'em up on youtube if they turn out half decent, and fit to go public with. Cheers

[Joefitz]

I was there in 1969 on a school exchange trip, a very disquieting and thought provoking place. it surely does illustrate man's inhumanity to man, though......Brrrrrrr...getting goosebumps remembering it!

[Margaret M.]

Nicely done, Percy. So very sad.

[northener]

Just shows what people are capable of doing, given an excuse.

I went up onto Vimy Ridge a few years ago and went on the guided tour of the trenches and tunnels. Very, very moving.

Hats off to the French for preserving these sites for future generations.

.

[JAWS]

The frightening thing about what happened is that it was not, as we would like to believe, carried out by some kind of monsters who were somehow different to everybody else.
It was carried out by people who, in a different era, would probably have lived quite unexceptional decent lives.

That is in no way meant to make excuses for what they did or to pretend their actions were not horrific. It would be better for humanity if they had been some sort of exceptional abomination but there is very little to prevent similar things happening again given the right circumstances.

The fact that Oradour has been preserved serves not only as a Memorial to the victims but as a reminder that such things could happen again far to easily unless we make sure they don't.

[percy toboggan]

The frightening thing about what happened is that it was not, as we would like to believe, carried out by some kind of monsters who were somehow different to everybody else.
It was carried out by people who, in a different era, would probably have lived quite unexceptional decent lives.

That is in no way meant to make excuses for what they did or to pretend their actions were not horrific. It would be better for humanity if they had been some sort of exceptional abomination but there is very little to prevent similar things happening again given the right circumstances.

The fact that Oradour has been preserved serves not only as a Memorial to the victims but as a reminder that such things could happen again far to easily unless we make sure they don't.

Jaws , I agree with you 100% the evidence of history, its mistakes and abberations should never be totally expunged. The veneeer of so called civilization, which covers most of us born in the 'developed' world is but a thin skin indeed. It is not difficult to envisage savagery returning, even closer to home.

[northener]

Acting 'under orders' or through belief in a political or religious doctrine leads people to commit all manner of atrocities.

You only have to look at the Balkans for an example, in Europe, of a situation that is far, far from being resolved. There are peacable, law abiding people who live there who, at the drop of a hat, will pick up a gun and eliminate their neighbours on the grounds of ethnicity, religion or pure xenophobia.

Like you said, scratch the surface......


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