Ex-Nazi soldier charged over French massacre
Only five men and a woman survived the massacre in the French village of Oradour-sur-Glane in 1944. [AFP]German prosecutors have charged an 88-year-old former soldier for taking part in the Nazi massacre of nearly the entire population of a French village in 1944.
Prosecutors say the unnamed suspect from Cologne allegedly murdered 25 people himself and may have helped others kill several hundred men, women and children.
The suspect, who denies the charges, belonged to an exclusive Nazi SS unit ordered to wipe out the village of Oradour-sur-Glane in June, 1944. The massacre was in retaliation for the kidnapping of a German official by the French resistance.
Most of the male villagers were gunned down while the women and children were burned alive inside a church. Only a handful of people survived. The massacre is considered to be the worst Nazi atrocity carried out on French soil during World War II.
Also Wednesday, German prosecutors dropped the case against a 92-year-old ex-Nazi accused of murdering a Dutch resistance fighter in 1944. Prosecutors say key evidence in the case has been lost since the killing.
Source: VOA and agencies
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