Ben Summerskill

This and that

[Ben Summerskill @BenSummerskill]

@timothy_stanley Oh go on. One third?

[BBC News (UK) @BBCNews]

Karren Brady stayed at West Ham despite knowing of Sullivan women's team ban https://t.co/zXnjBNcntH

[Voices of WW2 @VoicesofWW2]

On June 9, 1944, the French Resistance captured a senior SS officer named Helmut Kämpfe near Limoges. The next morning, his unit, the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich, was looking for a response. They had already hanged 99 men from the balconies of Tulle the day before, chosen at random from townspeople, leaving them to strangle slowly in front of their families because they couldn't find enough rope for a proper drop.

Now they needed something more.

On June 10, Sturmbannführer Adolf Diekmann led his men to Oradour-sur-Glane. Some historians believe he confused it with Oradour-sur-Vayres, a different village where the Resistance was actually active. Others believe he knew exactly where he was. Either way, at 2pm his soldiers blocked every road in and out of the village.

They told everyone to gather in the marketplace for a routine identity check. People complied. A dentist came. A farmer left his fields. Schoolchildren were told by their teachers not to worry, they'd be back by dinner. A man cycling through town stopped to see what was happening.

By 2:30pm, around 650 people were standing in the square.

Then the soldiers separated the men.

The women and children were marched to the church. The 190 men were divided into six groups and taken to barns across the village. The mayor, Dr. Paul Desourteaux, reportedly tried to negotiate. There was nothing to negotiate.

In the barns, the soldiers opened fire but aimed deliberately at legs. At thighs. At knees. The goal was not to kill but to incapacitate. To ensure that when they piled straw over the bodies and lit it, nobody could crawl away. Men who were on fire and still conscious screamed while soldiers stood outside the doors.

Six men survived by playing dead beneath other bodies. One died from his burns days later. Five lived.

In the church, the women had been waiting almost two hours with the children. Soldiers carried in a large wooden box and placed it in the nave. They lit a fuse and left. The explosion released a thick, suffocating smoke. Soldiers then entered and opened fire on anyone still moving. Then they piled wood, straw, and chairs onto the bodies and lit everything.

The church bell rang for hours as the fire climbed the tower.

Women broke windows. Those who reached the ledge were shot before they could jump. One woman, 47-year-old Marguerite Rouffanche, crawled behind the altar, found a small window, and squeezed through. She dropped three meters to the ground. A 19-year-old named Henriette Joyeux saw her and followed, throwing her seven-month-old baby out first. Soldiers shot the baby out of the air. Then shot Henriette. Then shot Marguerite five times as she ran.

Marguerite survived by lying still beneath pea plants in a garden while the village burned around her. She lay there until the next morning. She was the only person to leave the church alive.

The youngest confirmed victim was seven days old.

After the killings, the soldiers spent the afternoon looting every building. Food, valuables, livestock, wine. Some burned homes with elderly residents still inside. Then they ate dinner. That evening. In the area.

The next morning, relatives from surrounding villages arrived looking for their families. They found 642 dead and a village of smoking ruins.

The aftermath is almost as horrifying as the massacre itself.

At the 1953 war crimes tribunal, 65 men were indicted. Only 20 could be found. Fourteen were Alsatians, French citizens, and Alsace threatened to riot if its sons were convicted. An amnesty law was quietly passed. Almost everyone walked free within a year.

Nobody spent meaningful time in prison for Oradour-sur-Glane.

By French law, nothing in the original village may be moved, repaired, or altered. The rusted cars sit in the street where they burned. The sewing machines are fused to the shop floors. The baby carriages are still there. The church stands open to the sky with a plaque listing the names of the children killed inside.

You can walk through it today.

82 years ago this morning, those 642 people had no idea. The dentist was thinking about his afternoon appointments. The teachers were relieved the children were behaving. The man on the bicycle was annoyed about the delay.

By 6pm they were all dead, and the soldiers who killed them were eating dinner.

Never forget Oradour-sur-Glane.

[Ben Summerskill @BenSummerskill]

@alexmassie Mystic Massie indeed

[Ben Summerskill @BenSummerskill]

Below Deck is back on E4 @Channel4 Life is good

[Ben Summerskill @BenSummerskill]

@edwest They never look very happy

[Ben Summerskill @BenSummerskill]

@OBEhizele Dear Mr Yusuf, I get prostate cancer screening regularly because I‘m at high risk (my father died at 66). It’s a medical judgement, not a prejudice

[Ben Summerskill @BenSummerskill]

@D_Fens_Ghost Did Polly @pollytoynbee post any similar photos over the weekend?

[Ben Summerskill @BenSummerskill]

@GAYNORPRICEJON1 @TheLaurences_ She sends very specific instructions in advance about closing off women’s lavatories for her personal use, so perhaps she might in future send similar instructions about not curtsying?

[Ben Summerskill @BenSummerskill]

@bbcpaddy The ingrates!

[Ben Summerskill @BenSummerskill]

@dolphinsands Hire-Belisha did leave a beacon legacy

[Ben Summerskill @BenSummerskill]

@spectator Nothing‘s too good for the workers!

[Rupa Huq MP @RupaHuq]

Surprised to see my name on this list when I haven’t either signed any letter supporting the PM or called for the PM to go??

Not very courteous of colleagues to put names down without their approval

[Philip Murray @philipmurraylaw]

I’m sure disaffected voters in Gateshead will be delighted it’ll be easier for middle class kids to study in Heidelberg.

[Ben Summerskill @BenSummerskill]

Makes you proud to be British

[Alexandra Coghlan @AlexaCoghlan]

Email of the day…

[BBC News (UK) @BBCNews]

Bonnie Tyler in induced coma after emergency surgery https://t.co/5AxmX00rfv

[Ben Summerskill @BenSummerskill]

@PhilTory A sober reminder of what happened last time https://t.co/43jI1YjaKO

[Global Equality Caucus @Equality_Caucus]

🇧🇼 Botswana’s courts struck down the ban on same-sex intimacy.

https://t.co/Rksj01Z3e2

[Ben Summerskill @BenSummerskill]

Earlier this evening I walked round the @BarbicanCentre before meeting a pal. In all its bars and restaurants there was just one black person working front of house. In London. In 2026. Just saying.