Oradour-sur-Glanes

Today I visited the 'Massacre Village' of Oradour-sur-Glanes, more information from here, where I found the Memorial Centre closed. On 10th June 1944 642 men, women and children were brutally murdered by the German 'Das Reich' regiment on D Day. This is not history for I was born in that year. One description of the atrocity, linked here, has this quote:

In March 1945 Charles de Gaulle said

“Oradour-sur-Glane is the symbol of the calamities of the country. The memory must be kept alive, for a similar calamity must never occur again.”

The earlier linked site has a detailed description of the dreadful events of those summer days 'In a Ruined State' and the author Michael Williams, makes the following point in his conclusions: Any political system that is non-democratic places an enormous burden of responsibility onto the leader(s). If they say that they know best and that the rest should simply follow their lead, then theirs is the power and the glory, as is also the potential blame and odium. Man is an obedient animal; history shows us that. A leader can command his followers to do his will and normally they will do so. Under a democracy if the people do not like the way things turn out, they can change the leaders on a routine basis, under a dictatorship things can only get worse. A question, rather than a conclusion that I shall leave for you the reader to answer yourself is: Who is ultimately responsible, the people who elect a dictator to power, the dictator, or his minions who in believing the message to be right carry out his wishes? Yesterday two more countries joined the European Union making the total number of former nation states in that pointless, power-crazed conglomerstate a frightening total of twenty seven. Also yesterday, Germany, the most populace and powerful former nation now within the EU took over the six month rotating Presidency of that non-democratic organisation. Forgive the past by all means, but do not forget the facts nor ignore the lessons. France today is heading for its Presidential elections in the spring. Both likely main contenders Ségolène Royal and Nicolas Sarkozy seem to be prepared to ignore their compatriots' rejection of the EU Constitutional Treaty as an irrelevance and pitch their future policies towards convenience of EU administration rather than a readiness to defend the democracy that alone can protect us from tyranny. Twenty-six other ex-democracies will be looking to the French to prevent such a disaster. Perhaps both Madame Royal and Monsieur Sarkozy should visit Oradour ........ hopefully they will by then find the Memorial Centre re-opened! If not a quiet walk through the ruins should concentrate their minds.