Rue Emile Desourteaux looking towards the church
The Rue Emile Desourteaux looking toward the church which is just out of sight round the bend on the right. All the properties in Oradour show extensive fire damage, but no obvious blast damage. There has been as much erosion over the last half a century as one would reasonably expect and this has served to soften the outlines of the ruins. The aid-workers who came to the village in the days following the massacre did carry out quite extensive tidying up operations and all the rubble that had fallen into the streets was removed. The properties themselves were left internally as they were found once they had been searched for remains.
© Michael Williams: revised February 2004