The utmost survivor of Oradour-sur-Glane, Robert Hébras, died

Revealed on : 02/11/2023 – 14:25

“Tireless smuggler of memory”, “craftsman of peace and reconciliation”, Robert Hébras died on Saturday February 11 on the year of 97. He was once the utmost survivor of the bloodbath of Oradour-sur-Glane (Haute-Vienne), dedicated right through the 2nd Global Struggle,

He died on the Saint-Junien clinic, about ten kilometers from Oradour-sur-Glane, “surrounded by his relatives”, introduced his community, town corridor and the affiliation of the households of the martyrs of ‘Oradour-sur-Glane in a press leave.

President Emmanuel Macron recalled on Twitter the reminiscence of a “survivor” who “devoted his life to transmitting the memory of the victims, to working for peace and reconciliation”, era Top Minister Élisabeth Borne spoke of “a tireless memory carrier”.

“It is up to us to convey his message, the one he named to me in September 2013 with the German President: never forget and defend peace, Europe and democracy”, additionally reacted former President François Holland.

Robert Hébras was once about to be 19 when on June 10, 1944, the SS of the Das Reich category killed 643 society on this village in Limousin, probably the most worst massacres of civilians dedicated by means of the Nazis in Western Europe.

That afternoon, “the Germans get out of their truck, tell the population to gather in the central square. For about three quarters of an hour, no one worries. The men are then separated from the women and children”, mentioned once more with precision, in 2020, Robert Hébras to an AFP correspondent. A number of the sufferers, “the youngest was a week old, the oldest, 90 years old”.

In barns, squaddies execute males with system weapons, prior to burning them. Within the church, they lock up girls and kids and set fires. After they burn the our bodies, dig graves and set hearth to all the village.

Handiest six population escaped this bloodbath. Confidential below the corpses of his comrades in a barn, Robert Hébras controlled to resignation.

Satisfied Eu

This killing was once “meticulously prepared and executed” by means of the Nazis, who sought after to “sow terror so that the population does not switch to the side of the maquis”, in particular lively in Limousin, explains the president of the Nationwide Affiliation of Martyr Households. ‘Oradour-sur-Glane Benoît Sadry.

“My son, I never wanted to talk about Oradour with him, except when he was 20, when he went to the army”, confided Robert Hébras. Nearest a few years of walling in quietness, the person fought “so that we do not forget”, tirelessly telling his tale, particularly to schoolchildren.

“I did what I had to do”, summarized at 95 this former mechanic, to whom President Emmanuel Macron had offered the insignia of Commander of the Nationwide Line of Benefit in 2022.

“Convinced and committed European” in line with his community, embellished with the Legion of Honor, nearest the German Line of Benefit in 2012, Robert Hébras had guided French and German President François Hollande and Joachim Gauck within the ruins of the village in 2013. martyr.

He had testified for the primary pace on the trial of the bloodbath, arranged in Bordeaux in 1953, which resulted within the conviction of 7 Germans and fourteen Alsatians included into the SS, the “Despite us”.

Struggle for the reminiscence of the martyr village

The amnesty for those 14 squaddies, voted the similar moment by means of Parliament, provoked a protracted battle of recollections between Limousins ​​and Alsatians, which splashed Robert Hébras years then.

In 2012, he was once sentenced for defamation for having expressed, in a accumulation, doubts concerning the compelled enlistment of “despite us” within the Waffen SS, prior to being definitively cleared a moment then by means of the Courtroom of Cassation.

Over the future few years, Robert Hébras had handed on his reminiscence paintings to his granddaughter Agathe Hébras, with whom he had written a accumulation at the historical past of Oradour-sur-Glane.

The president of the Haute-Vienne departmental council, Jean-Claude Leblois, and the president of the Oradour reminiscence heart, Fabrice Escure, reported on Saturday “his fight for the recognition and memory of the martyr village and its 643 victims .”

Robert Hébras died simply prior to the 70^e anniversary of the decision of the Bordeaux trial, which fell at the evening of February 12 to 13, 1953.

With AFP