FrenchFrench President Francois Hollande and German counterpart Joachim Gauck will make a historic visit on Wednesday to a ghost village in west-central France where 642 people were massacred by Nazi soldiers in one of the worst atrocities during World War II, reports the Hindustan Times.
Gauck is the first German leader to visit Oradour-sur-Glane, where ruins from the war have been preserved as a memorial to the dead. They include a church where women and children were locked in, before toxic gas was released and the building set on fire.
Some 205 children aged under 15 were among victims of the June 10, 1944 atrocity which left deep scars in France.
After the war, French General Charles de Gaulle, who later became president, decided that the village should not be rebuilt but remain a memorial to the barbarity of Nazi occupation. A new village was built nearby.
In 1999, French president Jacques Chirac dedicated a memorial museum which includes items recovered from what became known as the 'Village of Martyrs'.
They include watches stopped at the time the owners were burnt alive, glasses melted from intense heat and other personal items.
Read more of this AFP report published by the Hindustan Times.
