Almost 80 years ago, near the French town of Meymac, German prisoners of war were shot and buried in a mass grave. The bodies are now to be dug up by experts.
A good 79 years after the shooting of 46 Wehrmacht soldiers by French resistance fighters, the exhumation of the corpses begins. The mass grave of the German prisoners of war is believed to be near the town of Meymac in southern France. There, French experts want to dig up the mortal remains of the soldiers with the technical support of the German War Graves Commission. The work should last until the end of August.
Contemporary witness reported mass grave
The resistance fighters shot the Wehrmacht soldiers and a French woman accused of collaboration on July 12 in a wooded area near Meymac. In the past month, soil analyzes have revealed evidence of a possible mass grave. The search was triggered by a report by the 98-year-old former resistance fighter Edmond Réveil from Meymac, who wanted to clear his conscience in the twilight of his life.
The report by eyewitness Edmond Réveil put the experts on the trail of the mass grave near Meymac.
The aim is now “to exhume the mortal remains of the German soldiers who have been forgotten in this place for 80 years” and to bring them back “to Germany, but above all, if possible, to their families,” said the Mayor of Meymac, Philippe Brugère. the AFP news agency.
During a first search operation in the 1960s, the bodies of eleven Wehrmacht soldiers had already been recovered near Meymac.
German war crimes in the region
German soldiers had committed serious war crimes in the region. On June 9, 1944, in Tulle, 50 kilometers southwest of Meymac, SS soldiers hung 99 civilians from balconies and lanterns. Another unit committed the worst massacre of World War II in Western Europe on June 10 in the town of Oradour-sur-Glane, killing 643.