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Photo: AFP
Macron and the last of the massacre's 6 survivors
Photo: AFP

Macron visiting Nazi site: Don't repeat history

In a visit at the site of the deadliest massacre in Nazi-occupied France, the French presidential candidate strives to distinguish himself from his opponent, whose party’s past is stained by anti-Semitism.

PARIS — French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron has paid homage to Nazi victims, urging voters not to repeat "the darkest page" of modern French history by forgetting the horrors of World War II.

 

 

Macron walked slowly through the site of the deadliest massacre in Nazi-occupied France, the village of Oradour-sur-Glane in western France.


Emmanuel Macron and Robert Hébras at the municipal cemetery before the memorial to the inhabitants exterminated by the Waffen-SS (Photo: EPA)
Emmanuel Macron and Robert Hébras at the municipal cemetery before the memorial to the inhabitants exterminated by the Waffen-SS (Photo: EPA)

In 1944, an SS armored division herded villagers into barns and a church, blocked the doors, and set the village ablaze. A total of 642 people died, and only six survived. The town's ruins are preserved as a testimony to Nazi horrors.

 

Emmanuel Macron (R) and Robert Hébras, one of the survivors of the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre, deposit a spray of flowers during a campaign visit of the ruins in the village. (Photo: AFP)
Emmanuel Macron (R) and Robert Hébras, one of the survivors of the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre, deposit a spray of flowers during a campaign visit of the ruins in the village. (Photo: AFP)

 

The En Marche! candidate was accompanied by the town’s mayor and 91-year-old Robert Hébras, who was one of the massacre’s six survivors and the only one still alive.

 

Macron has promised that if elected, he will come back to a village for the June commemoration of the massacre.

 

Emmanuel Macron (2nd L), flanked by Mayor of Oradour-sur-Glane Philippe Lacroix (L), listens to Robert Hébras (R), one of the survivors of the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre. (Photo: AFP)
Emmanuel Macron (2nd L), flanked by Mayor of Oradour-sur-Glane Philippe Lacroix (L), listens to Robert Hébras (R), one of the survivors of the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre. (Photo: AFP)

 

The town is today a phantom village, with burned-out cars and abandoned buildings left as testimony to its history.

 

This Jan. 1, 1953 aerial file picture shows the destroyed Oradour-sur-Glane. (Photo: AP)
This Jan. 1, 1953 aerial file picture shows the destroyed Oradour-sur-Glane. (Photo: AP)

 

Macron warned that "to forget … is to take the risk of repeating history and these errors."

 

Emmanuel Macron (3rd L), flanked by his wife Brigitte Trogneux (4th L) and Robert Hébras (L), one of the survivors of the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre, visits the ruins. (Photo: AFP)
Emmanuel Macron (3rd L), flanked by his wife Brigitte Trogneux (4th L) and Robert Hébras (L), one of the survivors of the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre, visits the ruins. (Photo: AFP)

 

He is trying to distinguish himself from far-right rival Marine Le Pen, whose party's past is stained by anti-Semitism.

 


פרסום ראשון: 04.28.17, 20:36
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