Marcelle Chauviré, rescued from Oradour-sur-Glane, breaks the silence after 80 years of silence | EUROtoday
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IIt took her 80 years to interrupt the silence she had been plunged into. Marcelle Chauviré, née Serrier, was 9 months previous throughout the Oradour-sur-Glane bloodbath that precipitated the loss of life of 643 folks on June 10, 1944. When we met her on that day in July 2024, her grandson, Ugo, instructed us that his grandmother was afraid to speak about it with a stranger. It was the primary time she had talked about it with somebody apart from a member of her circle of pals or household.
Just a few days earlier, on June 16, 2024, Marcelle and her total household went to Oradour-sur-Glane in entrance of the home the place she was born. There shouldn’t be a lot left of this stone constructing. Just a few partitions have resisted, however there isn’t a extra roof, home windows… The traces of the bloodbath are there.
Coming again right here was a problem for this grandmother. “I did it for my grandchildren, they made me understand that this story was mine, but also theirs,” Marcelle explains. But it's over, I received't return there anymore, it's too onerous.” Her grandson filmed this moment and posted the video on the Internet. “It was the primary time my story was shared.” For The Pointshe agreed to look back on this “great and shifting” day and to tell us, on camera, about her June 10, 1944. “So that our household's story wouldn’t be forgotten, we would have liked proof.” Speaking publicly is one of them.
“Why them and not us?”
Marcelle does not remember the day of the massacre, she was too young. However, when she recounts that day, one might think the opposite. It is the words of her parents that she allows us to hear. “That day, Dad was enjoying within the backyard with my brother,” she begins by explaining. The mild weather, the Germans who landed in the house, her father with a machine gun in his back, then this soldier who prevented them from reaching the village. An action that saved them. Everything seems clear in her head, she knows this story by heart, because “there’s not an evening once I don’t give it some thought, it’s always current,” she says in a quavering voice, with this question that keeps coming back: “Why them and never us?”
Then there was the exodus into the forest. For 10 days. “Mum told me that I had drunk cold, hot, curdled milk…,” Marcelle explains. “We had to be quiet so as not to be spotted, so every day we changed places.” Until the day when “two people from the Limoges prefecture came to tell us that they knew who we were and that they had found accommodation for us.”
It is impossible to return to live in their house burned down by the Germans. There is practically nothing left. “For Dad, it was very onerous. Going to clarify that he, his spouse and his kids have been saved by a German… It shouldn’t be simple to clarify that to individuals who have misplaced all the things.” Time to rebuild.
Survivor but not rescued
It was only at the age of 6 that she discovered her early life. “On June 10, the teacher stopped classes around 11:30 in the morning and she told the story of Oradour-sur-Glane.” After that, the teacher asked if it was possible to give “a small coin” for these people who had lost everything. So, once home, Marcelle asked her mother for money. “Mom told me: ‘Listen, we’re going to wait until Dad is here and we’ll talk about it when Dad gets home.’ And that’s when my parents told me.” She is now sharing this story publicly.
Since that day, Marcelle's parents, especially her father, have not spoken about it. A silence passed on to the next generation, but which will not reach the last generation: Marcelle's grandchildren and nephews and in particular Ugo, her grandson. Not wanting the family history to be forgotten, the latter pushed his grandmother to speak out, despite everything, with a fear: that it would do her more harm than good to evoke her past publicly. However, it seems to have had the opposite effect. “It relieved me. When I give it some thought, it's completely different now. I can by no means thank him sufficient,” she says, taking a look at her grandson, moved to tears.
https://www.lepoint.fr/societe/marcelle-chauvire-sauvee-d-oradour-sur-glane-sort-du-silence-apres-80-ans-de-mutisme-15-09-2024-2570289_23.php