On Saturday the 10th of June 1944. soldiers of the 3rd Company of the S.S. regiment 'Der Führer' of the 2nd Waffen-SS Panzer Division 'Das Reich' killed a total of 642 men, women and children without giving any reasons for their actions.  To this day there is no universally accepted explanation for the massacre.

When General de Gaulle came to Oradour, after the massacre, he decreed that the ruins should be preserved as a memorial so that future generations might not forget.