ABSTRACT
The tragic story of the French village of Oradour-sur-Glane was featured in the 1974 acclaimed British documentary television series "The World at War", narrated by Sir Laurence Olivier. During the massacre on the 10 June 1944, under the onslaught of the flames, some of the letters in the place name on the front of the tram station came adrift, leaving this word: Orage. One enters the Centre de la Mmoire by walking down a series of steep concrete stairs through a canyon of enormous rusted steel pylons and panels. The tangible souvenir from the Centre de la Mmoire bookshop was a fitting reminder that the crime committed at Oradour the Nazi attempted to wipe the village off the face of the earth ultimately failed. If the townsfolk derive a financial benefit from dark tourism in their vicinity, this would seem fair compensation for the legacy of having a ruined village on their doorstep.
