The call was heard. On June 18, the Ministry of Culture and the Heritage Foundation launched a national collection to finance the work aimed at consolidating the ruins of the martyred village of Oradour-sur-Glane. A Strasbourg resident contributed an amount of 500,000 euros, to help preserve the place sadly known for the massacre of 643 men, women and children perpetrated by the Nazis in 1944, reports Le Populaire du Center.
“We are particularly touched by this gesture,” declared Agathe Hébras to Le Populaire du Center, project manager at the Heritage Foundation and granddaughter of Robert Hébras, the last survivor of the massacre who disappeared last February. This donor wants to remain anonymous. She just accepts that people say that she is Alsatian, from Strasbourg. She doesn’t want to say anything more. She nevertheless hopes that her gesture will give ideas to other patrons.
Also read: Should we restore the martyred village of Oradour-sur-Glane?
An exceptional lavishness which considerably increases the amount of more than 260,000 euros collected in 7 months. The prize pool aims for the objective of 2 million euros. The deterioration of the site, of which the ruins preserved as testimony are classified, is accelerating. The ravages of time and climatic hazards make its restoration urgent. According to France 3 Nouvelle-Aquitaine, work is planned to rehabilitate the hardware store, the butcher’s shop on the main street and two barns.
“As long as there is life in Oradour, the Germans will have failed. We are going to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the tragedy in June 2024, and we must decide quickly what we can do to stop the deterioration of the village,” Benoît Sadry, responsible for memory at the town hall, told Le Figaro in February. and president of the National Association of Families of Martyrs.
