Witness History4 Feb 2025

Oradour massacre

In June 1944, a village in France was destroyed in just one day. German soldiers entered Oradour-sur-Glane and gathered the villagers together. They separated the men from the women and children and took groups to different locations of the village.

On that day, 642 were killed. Robert Hébras was just a teenager at the time.

Robert’s granddaughter, Agathe Hébras tells Gill Kearsley his powerful story, from the arrival of the soldiers to his escape and then his realisation that he was one of the few survivors of the massacre.

A warning, this programme contains descriptions of death.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

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(Photo: Robert Hebras at age 86, walks through the ruins of Oradour-sur-Glane. Credit: Jean-Pierre Muller/AFP via Getty Images)

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