Since August 16, backhoes have been working in a wooded area of Meymac, in Corrèze, to find the remains of 46 German soldiers shot in June 1944, after the revelations of a nonagenarian, a former member of the Francs tireurs et partisans. This Thursday, we learn from a press release from the Corrèze prefecture that the exhumation campaign carried out by ONACVG (national office for combatants and victims of war) and the VDK (Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge) did not make it possible to find the remains of the German soldiers shot on June 12, 1944, in Meymac.
“Following the collection of the two testimonies on the location of the bodies, the ground-penetrating radar surveys carried out at the end of June made it possible to identify an area of 45 meters by 10 meters likely to include a pit due to numerous anomalies in the ground, recalls the prefecture. After excavation, this area was found to be empty. The presence of aligned rock veins at a depth of 1.70 m could explain the radar echoes recorded at this location. »
Artifacts found and further research to come
The teams then widened the search area to a vast neighboring wooded plot and soundings were carried out, in the event of detection of an anomaly in the ground. “In this plot, several artifacts were found in an area of about ten square meters: 20 bullets and casings of French, German, American and Swiss weapons dating from before 1944 and 5 coins before 1943, reports Prefecture. These elements objectify the presence of a resistance group in this place in 1944.
Again, no human remains but the search does not stop there even if the campaign for exhumations ends this Thursday. “ONACVG and the VDK will analyze all the ground-penetrating radar data collected, will search for any archival documents not known to date and will study the possibility of using LIDAR technology to analyze the topography of the sector, specifies the prefecture. of Corrèze in its press release. As soon as new elements make it possible to refine the location of the remains, a new exhumation campaign will be carried out. »