Tulle

After D-Day the SS Das Reich Division was travelling up from the South of France to join the battle in Normandy. On the way they were attacked & harassed by the French Resistance.

Brigadier General Lammering of Das Reich announced that Tulle would pay in “Blood & ashes” for the killing of German troops. Armoured vehicles smashed their way into the town on the 9th of June & SS troops rounded up some 500 men & women.

Lammering initially directed that they should all be publicly executed, but 401 were subsequently released.

The remaining 99 men & women were hanged from the balconies of houses & lamp posts along the main street as the town’s people were forced to watch.

The victims hung from the balconies were the more fortunate. The women & girls thrown off with ropes round their necks may have suffered the indignity of their skirts flying up as they fell but at least their screams of terror were cut short as their necks invariably fractured when the ropes cut short their falls.

Those hanged from lamp posts had their hands tied, were noosed & then simply hoisted up to slowly strangle to death. Lammering, some of his officers & a German woman secretary observed the executions from the terrace of the Café Tivoli, where they sat smoking cigarettes, drinking & taking pictures.

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