Oradour: testimony and message

By R. Fruzieg - Mayor of Oradour

(In the context of the events of the 63rd Anniversary of the Kalavritan Holocaust, the Municipality of Kalavryta organized on December 11, 2006 at the historic Hotel "Chelmos" - on the initiative of the that-time Deputy Mayor Mr Nikolaos Tzenos – a meeting of representatives of Martyr Regions of Europe on the topic: "Universal memory and Holocausts".

Representatives of European Martyr Cities, Orandour, Lidice, representatives of Greek Martyr Cities, Politicians, Ambassadors, Fighters of the National Resistance – with the noticeable presence of M. Glezos – Educators, Universities, etc., with meaningful, rich and pluralistic speeches shed light on unknown aspects of the Holocaust and they emphasized and concluded emphatically that deep knowledge of the past guarantees a peaceful future.

We have singled out and quote on the following pages in the form of articles the testimonies of the Mayor of the city of Orandour in France and the Deputy Mayor of the city of Lidice in the Czech Republic about the destruction of their homeland by the Nazi troops. "Communications" magazine, vol. 16, Dec. 2007.)

It is an honour for me to be with you today in Kalavryta and to convey to you the fraternal respects of Orandour and the greetings of France.

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It is with great emotion that I take the floor before you, in this city that has been tragically marked by History and where I am coming for the first time.

What impressed and shocked me, on arriving in your city, is the clock of your church that shows forever 14:34, the time of the execution of the 700 men of Kalavryta. This frozen time for decades thus remains forever the witness of man's murderous madness.

Our two cities have in common that they have suffered destruction and have experienced the unspeakable and have counted so many innocent victims who paid with their lives, the price of fanaticism and blind hatred

 

• Oradour

Peaceful village of Limousin, engraved on the map on June 10, 1944, by the people who violated the laws of the simplest humanity, who brought death with the greatest brutality, who slaughtered, tortured, burned 642 victims, who transformed the church, traditionally a symbol of forgiveness and peace, in a true human pit of corpses, thus proving as our excellent writer Plutarch used to say:

" It is by no means a wild animal, more violent, than man, when

it has the power to satisfy its passion."

• Kalavryta

A destroyed and burned city, the 700 men shot,  victims of the atrocities of the Nazi occupation army.

This operation, in German “Unternehmen Kalawrita”, marked the most tragic page of your region.

What a similarity of destiny with Oradour!

The deaths in Kalavryta and Oradour cannot be forgotten. They must not die a second time, as the actions of which they were victims, were the logical consequence to the absurdity of human desires.

And because we do not forget these wounds, we cannot help but think of the victims of Guernica, Lidice, Marzabotto, Warsaw and all these cities, all these villages whose urban populations succumbed to the madness of the nationalists and of fanatics. There is no innocent war, each one is accompanied by revenge, reprisals, atrocities mainly against the most vulnerable.

The 700 men of Kalavryta and the 642 victims of Oradour who perished under the bullets and flames live on in our memory.

• What the tombs tell us is that nothing can end a people, no fear, no pain, no mourning.
• Because beyond death and destruction, there remains the will of man, his will to survive, his will to bear unspeakable pain.

Beyond mourning and sorrow, there is the power of hope. The hope that exists in the days of the commemoration ceremony, is that which possesses the participants to establish a lasting and permanent peace, the peace between the people who have never stopped suffering.

We Europeans, who once used to destroy peace, are aware of our role:

• in a world where the clanging of arms never ceases,
• in a world that never stops giving in to violence, only memory and will can set limits to what is not human.

It is also a great honour for me to participate in this meeting, and then to be in contemplation with you during the ceremonies of the 13th of December, in a great convergence of spirit beyond our borders.

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These encounters that allow us to recall these places full of emotion, these places that always carry with them the violence they endured and the immensity of the pains they experienced, these places that still have the whole history of the weakness of human memory, bring, with the intensity and power of memories, a deep identity of opinions.

They allow to remind that we have to work against all types of intransigence, we sometimes give in to them too easily and they are the true sources of such fratricidal hatred. These meetings help the memories to stay awake and reinforce the ever-increasing and demanding demand of human brotherhood.

 Each of us here is a consciousness and a will.

We who represent Kalavryta and Oradour, being persistent defenders of a human demand, bring our contribution to the culture of peace at the same time not to disappoint Man but also to believe in the creation of a better world, as we know that today the true strength is not the ability to make war but rather the ability to prevent it.

We who represent Kalavryta and Oradour, being persistent defenders of a human demand, bring our contribution to the culture of peace at the same time not to disappoint Man but also to believe in the creation of a better world, as we know that today the true strength is not the ability to make war but rather the ability to prevent it.

There are no other paths but that of friendship, that of understanding, that of unity, the one made with respect for identities and the rights of all human beings.

 We always leave the ruins of Oradour and the monument of Kalavryta psychologically affected.

The history of these dramas binds us. It binds us to fraternity. It makes us expect what was not there more than ever, bonds where human dignity can be plagued.

This is the sentiment I share with you today in Kalavryta.