Memorial wall at site of Nazi massacre in French village defaced with word 'lie'

Ruins of Oradour-Sur-Glane has been left untouched since SS troops killed 642 villagers in 1944, herding them into barns and a church and setting the town on fire

Vandals have scrawled graffiti on a wall in the village that was the site of the biggest massacre of French civilians by the Nazis during World War II, questioning whether the atrocity took place.

France’s justice minister vowed on Saturday that those responsible would be brought to justice.

Officials in Oradour-Sur-Glane, near Limoges in central France, threw up a tarp to cover the graffiti discovered Friday on the wall at the entrance to the Center for Remembrance.

The word “Lie” was scrawled on the wall, along with other graffiti, according to the regional paper Le Populaire du Centre. The inscription “Martyr Village” was crossed out.

The main street of Oradour sur Glane, near Limoges, France shown January 9, 1952, as it appears, more than eight years after it was burned and sacked by the Nazis on June 10, 1944, in a massacre in which 642 people, including 246 children, died. (AP Photo)

“Shame on those who did this,” Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti tweeted. “All will be done to find and judge those who committed these sacrilegious acts.”

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin denounced the “abject filth” in a Friday night tweet. Prime Minister Jean Castex said the graffiti “dirties the memory of our martyrs.”

Troops from the fanatical SS “Das Reich’’ division were responsible for killing 642 villagers on June 10, 1944, herding them into barns and a church and setting the town on fire.

While a new village has been built, the ruins of the old town have been left untouched as a testimony to Nazi horrors.

Mayor of Oradour-sur-Glane, Raymond Fugier, right, then-French president Francois Hollande, third from right, Robert Hebras, one of the two survivors, center, and former German president Joachim Gauck, center left, walk through the ghost city of Oradour-sur-Glane, southwestern France, September 4, 2013. (AP Photo/ Yoan Valat, Pool)

The massacre occurred four days after the Allied D-Day landings in Normandy. The killings were believed to have been ordered in retaliation for the kidnapping of a German soldier by the French Resistance.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.