There is nothing hidden that shall not be revealed.
"There was this boy," says Werner Christukat. "He came walking over the hill. A small blond boy with a bicycle and he wanted to go past me and into the village. I can still picture it exactly. I stopped him and wanted to chase him away, but then the junior squad leader came up and started yelling at me…"
The events described by Christukat took place almost 70 years ago, but he has never forgotten them. Yet ever since Nazi hunters paid him a visit last year, he has been combing through his memory for additional images: during the day when he sits in his sunroom in his knitted vest surrounded by pictures of his grandchildren; at night when he wanders sleeplessly through his dark home.
Christukat's unit -- the 3rd company of the 1st battalion of the SS mechanized infantry division "Der Führer" -- marched into the southwestern French village of Oradour-sur-Glane on June 10, 1944. Soldiers herded all of the villagers together. They shot the men to death in barns and locked the women and children in the village church, set off explosives, threw hand grenades inside and burned the church to the ground. They incinerated the entire village, including all 642 people they found there; 181 men, 254 women and 207 children according to the indictment. Many of them were burned alive. Charred remains of mothers clutching babies were found, as were elementary school pupils embracing in death.
"There was this boy," says Werner Christukat. "He came walking over the hill. A small blond boy with a bicycle and he wanted to go past me and into the village. I can still picture it exactly. I stopped him and wanted to chase him away, but then the junior squad leader came up and started yelling at me…"
Christukat's unit -- the 3rd company of the 1st battalion of the SS mechanized infantry division "Der Führer" -- marched into the southwestern French village of Oradour-sur-Glane on June 10, 1944. Soldiers herded all of the villagers together. They shot the men to death in barns and locked the women and children in the village church, set off explosives, threw hand grenades inside and burned the church to the ground. They incinerated the entire village, including all 642 people they found there; 181 men, 254 women and 207 children according to the indictment. Many of them were burned alive. Charred remains of mothers clutching babies were found, as were elementary school pupils embracing in death.
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