Silent Village by Robert Pike

Author:Robert Pike
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The History Press

Matthieu Mercier on his bicycle outside the post office. After retiring as a postman, Mercier helped run a grocery store. (Collection Benoit Sadry)

Pierre Tarnaud, a 35-year-old former prisoner of war, had spent the whole morning in Saint-Victurnien with his wife. The couple had taken several animals for requisition and slaughter. It had been an early morning and they were looking forward to getting back to their farm in Le Theil, 2km north of Oradour. To get home they had to pass through the village centre. Everything was entirely normal when they travelled through sometime between half past twelve and half past one.

The morning tram had brought people from Limoges who were using their Saturday to do some food shopping, but the village was not bustling. The sun was shining after the morning rain, and the Limousin air was clear. The bright sun had brought out the glorious colours of early summer, gleaming off the red roofs and silver tram tracks that ran along the gritty road towards Limoges. Aimé Renaud had finished lunch with his wife Jeannine and daughter Any. He lazily climbed Oradour’s main street towards Hubert Desourteaux’s garage, where he had agreed to help that day. His friend Fernand Lesparat walked alongside him. They chatted about the maquis and whether they might ever join. Renaud got on with some work while they carried on talking.

Robert Hébras should have been working at his employer’s garage in Limoges. The day before, his boss, unhappy at the workload of requisitioned vehicles, had got into a dispute with a German officer. Robert was told that it would be safer for him, given his age, to stay away in case the garage got targeted for round-ups. Robert remained at home and fitted an electric socket for a neighbour who had been given a small electric stove. He had finished a lunch shared with his mother and two of his three sisters.

Robert’s sister, Georgette, a 22-year-old nurse, had also come home to Oradour from Limoges because she felt uneasy about possible aerial bombings. Their father was in Saint-Victurnien that morning and had yet to return. Their 9-year-old sister Denise had finished her meal and was preparing to go back to school. Martial Brissaud, wheelwright, football teammate and childhood friend of Robert arrived at the door. He and Robert chatted in the warm sun about the following day’s match. Under the watchful eye of her mother, Denise kissed her big brother at the doorstep and headed back to school.

Sixteen-year-old Yvonne Gaudy, who lived on her parents’ farm in the village of Theineix, 2km north-east of Oradour, decided that she would take a post-lunch walk to deliver some gloves that she had finished. Her agent, Yvonne Bardet, ran a family farm in the hamlet of Villa-Andrée on the road to Saint-Victurnien. Yvonne would walk through Oradour, cross the Glane and join the road at a set of crossroads in Puy-Gaillard. On her way she saw her young neighbour Gilbert Lavergne who was heading back to school. She liked Gilbert, admiring him because he had stayed on at school after getting his cértificat.

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