GERMANY: Prosecutors in the western German city of Dortmund are investigating six former Nazi soldiers who are accused of having been involved in a mass murder in the French town of Oradour-sur-Glane in 1944

Record ID: 860360

  • Title: GERMANY: Prosecutors in the western German city of Dortmund are investigating six former Nazi soldiers who are accused of having been involved in a mass murder in the French town of Oradour-sur-Glane in 1944
  • Date: 7th December 2011
  • Summary: VARIOUS AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHS OF TOWN
  • Embargoed: 22nd December 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany, Germany
  • City:
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA415U562B6PMZTQMY8LJCQBNBH
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  • Story Text: Six former Nazi soldiers accused of involvement in a mass murder in the French town of Oradour-sur-Glane in 1944 had their houses searched by German authorities almost 70 years after allegedly committing the crimes, a state prosecutor said in Dortmund on Tuesday (December 06).
    State prosecutor Andreas Brendel described to Reuters Television what happened in the French town in the summer of 1944 where members of Hitler's Waffen SS killed almost the entire village population.
    "First the local people were gathered together on the market square. Men and women were separated. Women and children were imprisoned inside the church while the men were distributed to different barns," Brendel said.
    "On the order of the then commander, hand grenades were thrown at the church and the men inside the barns were shot dead. In the end, the church with the women and children inside was set on fire," Brendel said.
    Courts in France and what was then East Germany dealt with the crimes in the past but an official accusation was never made in West Germany although several investigations were underway.
    Asked why German prosecutors were now looking into the case, 67 years after the crimes occurred, Brendel said "the investigations into this case have been going on in western Germany for some time. There were several proceedings among them at the Dortmund prosecutor's office. Unfortunately, these proceedings in the past never led to any successes, meaning there were no verdicts. Based on an investigation by the former East German Stasi secret police, we noticed certain coincidences which led us to renew the proceedings."
    According to Brendel, the six men live in Cologne, near Bielefeld, outside Berlin, near Hanover and near Darmstadt.
    No further details on their identities were given.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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