Robert Hébras is the last witness to the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre and this Wednesday, June 1, 2022, he publishes with his granddaughter, Agathe, the book The last witness of Oradour-sur-Glane published by HarperCollins.
On June 10, 1944, he survived the massacre perpetrated in Oradour-sur-Glane, a small French town located in the department of Haute-Vienne, by the SS Das Reich division. This massacre is indelible and will remain one of the worst atrocities committed during the Second World War under the occupation of the Nazis. Two groups were created, women and children on one side, men on the other. Some will be shot, others burned alive, especially in the heart of the church.
franceinfo: This book, written together with your granddaughter, is a handover necessary for the transmission of this painful memory.
Robert Hebras: The handover happened over time, I felt that my granddaughter was very close to what I experienced. It didn’t happen on a whim, but over time.
In this book, we learn who you are. You also pay tribute to your parents.
I had three sisters, I lost two in Oradour, with my mother.
Robert Hebrasat franceinfo
I come from a modest family. I spent my childhood and adolescence in the village. Before, it was a quiet life.
When the Nazis arrive, you are chatting with your comrades. You talk about football and then you see tracked armored vehicles arriving.
Yes. We hear the noise, we turn around and we see the tracked vehicles passing in front of us. I have my comrade, Martial, who tells me: “I’m scared, I’m going to hide“. I answered him: but what do you want them to do to us?
At that point, no one actually realizes what is happening.
No. We don’t realize it because first of all, we don’t know what happened the day before in Tulle. If we had known, that would have tipped us off. What we know today, we learned afterwards. Besides, they weren’t aggressive at the time.
At the beginning, it happens in a very calm way. The Germans enter each house, they take out the occupants, one after the other. They shout : “Square“so that everyone gathers there and divides the population into two groups.
Yes. That is to say that we are on the square, all together. No one had imagined what was going to happen.
There’s this Laudy barn. You pass in front of the Germans and they ask you to go back.
We men are put on the sidewalk, facing the wall. They had weapons.
And you watch your mom go away from elsewhere…
Yes, I look at my mom who was turning around, who was very worried about me. I didn’t realize what was going on.
Suddenly, one of the soldiers asks you to stand up.
At one point, there is a soldier who walks around our group, beckoning us to get up. We get up and by the time they come back to the entrance of the barn, there is a detonation in the village which gave the signal for the shooting.
There they shoot you. All of your friends fall. You yourself fall, seriously injured.
Yes, I fall I don’t know how and I find myself under the others.
And you don’t move. You take the decision not to move, not to show that you are alive.
When the fire reaches me, I make the decision to go out, convinced of being killed by the fire. I didn’t want to burn to death.
And there, you finally find yourself with some comrades. You are really a handful to get by.
We find ourselves at five, to protect ourselves, throughout the afternoon, from the soldiers and the fire.
During the night, you are going to join one of your sisters who does not live in Oradour. This is where you will find your father and you are convinced at that moment that you will soon be able to find the women of your life, your mother and your two other sisters…
When I explained to my father what had happened, that the women had been taken outside, my father, without telling me anything, took his bicycle and went to Oradour. He approached the church and he saw the massacre in the church.
My father came back from Oradour-sur-Glane and said to me: ‘You will never see your mother and your sisters again, they burned them in the church’. I think it was the biggest shock of my life.
Robert Hebrasat franceinfo
Agathe, you have become your grandfather’s oxygen.
Agathe Hebras: It’s reciprocal. We are linked even without being together.
What does this grandfather represent for you?
I often say he’s my superhero. I believed for a very long time that he was immortal. It took me a long time to realize that I wouldn’t have it all my life. I know that one of his fears was not seeing me go to school. He wanted to see me when I was nine, the age of his little sister Denise, who went to Oradour. He’s the first man in my life.
As long as you’re alive, Robert, will you testify?
Robert Hebras: Yes, it is essential to testify.