“Our task is to bring to light the identity of the dead”, indicates an association of German veterans

“Our most important task is to uncover the identity of the dead”, reacted Thursday, May 18 on franceinfo Diane Tempel-Bornett, spokesperson for Volksbund, the federal association of German veterans, after the testimony on franceinfo by Edmond Réveil. This resistant, now 98 years old, recounted the execution of 47 German soldiers in June 1944 in a forest of Meymac in Corrèze, 79 years after the fact. Edmond Réveil is a former member of the Francs-tireurs et partisans (FTP) during the Second World War.

“We also want to be able to inform the families. And this is where we meet this 98-year-old witness who, after almost 80 years, has relieved his conscience”, she continues. “I find it noble of him, regardless of everything else, that he is now saying that he wants to inform the relatives of these people, those who can finally know what happened”adds Diane Tempel-Bornett.

Search for remains

The Meymac event comes two days after another massacre, that of Oradour-sur-Glane, on June 10, 1944, where 642 children, women and men died, shot or burned alive by the SS of Das Reich. To discover the identity of the soldiers killed and buried in 1944, this German association will lend a hand on a technical level.

Volksbund will make available to the French authorities, for this search which should begin at the end of June, two special radars. “It is on the one hand a geo-radar which works on the surface and a geo-radar in depth. And therefore a ground radar and a surface radar. And this will make it possible to study the structures of the ground”, explains Diane Tempel-Bornett. “It still doesn’t mean that we can see if there are bones for example. But we can see if the ground has been disturbed, if someone has dug, so if we see that something has passed on these surfaces over the past few decades, we will be able to probe the ground.”she explains.