Centre de la mémoire d'Oradour

About

The Centre de la mémoire d'Oradour (the memorial center of Oradour) has made its mission to commemorate the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre by the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich of the Waffen-SS and to act as a memorial for coming generations.

Founding: On initiative of Jean Claude Peyronnet, president of the Conseil Général of Haute-Vienne and with the agreement of the French association of families of the martyrs, the project was presented to the French president François Mitterrand in 1989. In 1992 the project management was decided in an international trending process and received the support of the ministry of culture, the ministry of war veterans and the European Community. In 1994 a project director was engaged, to coordinate the process of historical research. At the same time, the architect Yves Deverne was assigned to design and build the Oradour memorial center. In 1999 the Oradour memorial centre was opened by the French president Jacques Chirac and the French minister of culture Catherine Trautmann. By 2002 the centre had 300,000 visitors, who were able to see the permanent exhibition as well as temporal exhibits.