Last week, I went to Oradour-sur-Glane. It’s a little place near Limoges, not especially scenic or big. It’s special because on the 10th June 1944, an SS division massacred the whole village. A call was put out for photos of every one of the 642 people killed there.

As you can see, there are some blank spaces. Some of those people may never have had their photo taken. Their whole family was murdered that day. Not a trace remains but for a name carved into a memorial and the ruins of their village.

The Nazis rounded up everyone in the village. They put the men in various buildings, shot their legs & set the buildings on fire. They put the women and children in the church and set it on fire then stood outside and shot anyone who tried to escape. You can see the bullet holes.

Then they pillaged what they could take and set the rest of the village on fire.

This wasn’t a rogue attack. The day before, they hung almost 100 men & boys in a neighbouring village in front of everyone else as a warning to the resistance. This was systemic violence, it was countless atrocities, large and small.

The people of Oradour were worried about who was going to win that evening’s football match with a neighbouring team. Maybe they got a haircut that morning, sat on the pavement for a coffee, did some mending, chatted with the baker. That night they were all dead.

The events of WWII are pretty much out of living memory now which is why places like Oradour are so important. Not just to honour the lives lost but to remind ourselves that the legitimisation of fascism is a dangerous road to travel.

So when you hear that ‘there are good people on both sides’ (from anyone) you can recognise this for what it is. A signal to those people who are that SS division of the future that they’re free to pursue hatred & intolerance. And you can stand up to it.