Shot in France
Excavations for Wehrmacht soldiers begin
08/16/2023, 9:40 p.m
After the Waffen-SS massacred the population in Tulle, France, and in the village of Oradour-sur-Glane, 47 Germans were shot by the French resistance in June 1944. All those involved remain silent about the circumstances – except for one. That gets the investigation rolling.
After a reference to a mass grave with dozens of Wehrmacht soldiers shot by the French resistance in southern France, the German War Graves Commission has started excavations. Since Wednesday, digging has been going on at a site where soil investigations in June had led to abnormalities, said the head of the Volksbund’s war graves service, Arne Schrader. On the first day, the search yielded no results.
The 47 Germans were shot in June 1944 – after a Waffen SS massacre of the population of Tulle and the obliteration of the village of Oradour-sur-Glane, a war crime that became a symbol of Nazi barbarism in France. It was generally known that the Germans and a French woman accused of collaboration were shot in a forest near Meymac. However, all those involved had remained silent about the circumstances for the rest of their lives.
The last surviving witness recently broke his silence at the age of 98 before investigations began. Accordingly, the human remains of those shot should rest in two mass graves. One with eleven bodies was located in 1967 with the greatest secrecy. The testimony of a man who had observed the exhumation of the eleven dead as a schoolchild also helped in the search for the second grave. The remaining 36 Wehrmacht soldiers who are still missing are said to be buried about 100 meters away underground.
Only identification tags make identification possible
French helpers and an archaeologist are involved in the excavations in the forest. Full-time and voluntary Umbetter of the Volksbund support the search in the Limousin. The Volksbund expressed the cautious hope of finding and salvaging the dead. The bones would then be examined at an institute in Marseille. But only when identification tags are found is identification possible. Then the Volksbund could search for and inform relatives. Burial place would be a German war cemetery in France.
The Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge not only looks for war dead abroad, it also takes care of the construction and care of graves of German soldiers of both world wars at home and abroad. Unlike similar organizations abroad, it finances itself 90 percent from donations and membership fees. The federal and state governments contribute the remainder of the budget.