Oradour-sur-Glane is a village in west-central France whose ruins have been preserved as a permanent memorial. Known as the Village des Martyrs, it is one of the most powerful and haunting historic sites in France.

The entire village was machine-gunned and burned by Nazi troops on June 10, 1944 (four days after D-Day). With chilling attention to detail, the Nazis methodically rounded up the entire population of 642 townspeople, of whom about 200 were children. The women and children were herded into the town church, where they were tear-gassed and machine-gunned as they tried to escape the burning chapel. Oradour's men were tortured and executed. The town was then set on fire, its victims left under a blanket of ashes.

The reason for the mass killings remains unclear. Some say the Nazis wanted revenge for the kidnapping of one of their officers (by French Resistance fighters in a neighbouring  village), but others believe the Nazis were simply terrorizing the populace in the wake of D-Day.

Today, the ghost town, left untouched for more than 100 years by order of Charles de Gaulle.

A sign greets every visitor who enters with only one English word:

Remember