Massacre at Oradour

Walking through the ruins of Oradour-sur-Glane was one of the most moving experiences of my life (Time threatens ghostly remains of a Nazi atrocity, 4 September). The man responsible for the massacre was SS General Heinz Lammerding. The day after the destruction of Oradour, either he or the officer in command of the SS company that carried out the atrocity (a Colonel Heinz Barth, who was later jailed for life) was seen sitting outside a cafe in nearby Tulle smoking a cigar and listening to a German band as he watched partisans being hung from nearby lamp-posts. In 1953, a French court sentenced Lammerding to death in his absence, but there was no legal provision for him to be extradited to France or for the case to be heard in a West German court. Twenty years later, the French and German governments agreed he could be tried by a German court, though former resistance leaders wanted him to be extradited, but before a trial could take place, he died. He was 66 and had lived openly in Dusseldorf, where he was a builders' merchant. It has always been my understanding that the people of Oradour-sur-Glane were massacred in error. It was partisans from another nearby village with a similar name who had ambushed some German troops. The official version of events is set out in Oradour-sur-Glane: Vision D'epouvante by Guy Pauchou and Dr Pierre Masfrand, published by Charles-Lavauzelle, Limoges, in 1944.
Dr Ron Cox
South Croydon. Surrey

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