6 . Memorial dedicated to the victims of the Distomo massacre ©, A . Hertzog
received in Oradour , which returned its decorations in protest . The National Association of the Families of the Martyrs of Oradour-sur-Glane ( ANFMOG ) rejected the memorial built by the state to house the victims ’ remains and erected its own ossuary in the communal cemetery . It took approximately 30 years for relations between the village and the state to normalise . Since then , the political reinvestment in the site has been actively maintained . Two French Presidents , François Hollande in 2013 and Emmanuel Macron in 2024 , visited Oradour alongside their German counterparts - an unprecedented act .
The forms of monumentalisation reflect a shared European commemorative culture , including cemeteries , necropolises , ossuaries , and war memorials . Human remains left on site , and the tributes paid to them , contribute to the construction of the “ martyred village ” concept by metonymy . These remains are , in some sense , incorporated into the ruins , even when later relocated to the villages ’ peripheries . This transfer of sacrality varies : ruins may be preserved ( as in Belchite ) and protected ( as in Oradour and Corbera d ’ Ebre ), rebuilt ( as in Lidice ), rediscovered and
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