[Extracted from the article "Persecution in France for "The Waffen-SS: Innocent at Oradour""]

On June 9, 2004, the appeal court in Limoges sentenced me to two years in prison (whereof 18 months on probation) and a fine of 3000 Euro for the crime of "approving a war crime." It also declared the confiscation of parts of my archive, which was seized in 2001, to be lawful. The reason for this sentence was my research into the SS "massacre" in the French village of Oradour 60 years ago.

It all began in 1989, when I spoke with a friend about the Waffen-SS and he told me that the official history of "the Oradour massacre" was being questioned by a number of people. At that point I still believed – as almost all French do – in the official historical version. I believed, that members of the Waffen-SS on June 10, 1944, had destroyed the village of Oradour and annihilated its inhabitants. I also believed that they had burned several hundreds of women and children alive in the local church.

In the case of Oradour we are not dealing with a few dozen dead, but with the cold-blooded murder of 642 people, whereof about 500 defenseless women, children, and infants. Faced with such a dire allegation and harboring doubts about it, it is completely reasonable if one visits the site of the crime in order to observe with one" s own eyes that which is held as fact.

I am not a historian. My background is that of a chemical engineer and a teacher of natural science. Therefore I have not studied Oradour with the approach normally taken. It is a fact that French writers when dealing with the Waffen-SS first explicate on the German theories of total war, then talk of "the crimes of the SS" in Russia, Czechoslovakia, and elsewhere; then follows the German occupation of France and the general activities of the Waffen-SS in their fight against the Resistance. The Oradour massacre is dealt with only after that. For these tendentious writers the guilt of the Waffen-SS is self-evident. This is why since 1947 the officially disseminated version is the only one to be heard.

[...]

The most likely conjecture is that a partisan ammunition depot was located in the church, and that on June 10 this depot exploded with tragic consequences. The reasons for this remained to be clarified. This theory of course contradicts the official version, which portrays Oradour as a peace loving village located in a region completely free of partisans. The advocates of the official theory do not want people to think consider seriously the factual causes behind the destruction of the church. Why would the Resistance not have used a large village by the side of the main transport routes for their purposes? After all, we know of several cases from France and Belgium in which church buildings were used by partisans as hiding places for large amounts of ammunition.

[...]

The French have always rebutted this German version with their claim of peaceful village. This is a poor attempt to portray themselves as innocent or at least to justify themselves. But let us assume for a moment, that the Waffen-SS really acted "by evil habit" as they are alleged to have done. If they had sought to terrorize and demoralize the population, the Waffen-SS would scarcely have looked for excuses. Rather they would have declared with demonical pride, that they were not to be made fools of. In this case there would have been not one Oradour, but ten, twenty, fifty.

[...]

The most probable scenario to me looks like this: While the Waffen-SS searched through the village, some partisans hid themselves in the church, where weapons and ammunition was hidden since previously. When the women and children were brought to the church, the hidden partisans were discovered. The German soldiers sought to capture them. It came to fisticuffs and finally shots were fired. These shots may have caused the ammunition to explode. Did all women and children inside the church die as a result of the catastrophe? This does not seem plausible, since parts of the church were not destroyed, and since there are objects made of wood and textile left intact. The people standing in the vicinity of these objects must thus also have survived the drama, and not only the already mentioned false witness Mrs. Rouffanche