The crypt at Oradour looking from the cemetery
View of the crypt looking south from the cemetery, the ruins are visible in the background. This building houses many artefacts recovered from the village in the days following the massacre. Items such as watches and clocks (stopped by the fire at around 16:00-16:30), personal papers, combs, photographs and many other belongings that escaped being totally burned and destroyed. The crypt itself is almost entirely subterranean in construction and dimly lit, so much so in fact that on a bright sunny day care is needed to avoid stumbling until ones eyes become accustomed to the gloom. I personally think that the crypt looks like a cross between a nuclear bunker and The White Sphinx of the 1960 film adaptation of H.G.Wells book, The Time Machine and that it does no credit to anyone, or helps the story of Oradour at all. The exhibits would now be better displayed in the Centre de la Mémoire. See crypt and memorial for view from the south.
© Michael Williams: revised December 2006