German authorities said they have charged an 88-year-old former member of an SS armored division with 25 counts of murder over allegations that he took part in the largest civilian massacre in Nazi-occupied France.
Cologne state court spokesman Achim Hengstenberg said suspect Werner C.， whose last name wasn’t given in accordance with German privacy laws， was also charged with hundreds of counts of accessory to murder in connection with the 1944 slaughter in Oradour-sur-Glane in southwestern France.
Dortmund prosecutors allege that the suspect shot 25 men， and then helped as troops blockaded and then set fire to a church， in which dozens of women and children were burned alive. In total 642 men， women and children were killed.
The suspect’s attorney， Rainer Pohlen， said his client doesn’t deny being at the village but said he never fired a shot that day and was not otherwise involved in any killings. The suspect was only 19 at the time.
On June 10， 1944 — just four days after the D-Day landings in Normandy — the German troops attacked Oradour-sur-Glane in reprisal for the French Resistance’s kidnapping of a German soldier.
The troops herded the civilians into barns and into the church， blocked the doors and then set fire to the entire town. Those not killed in the blazes were shot as they tried to flee， though a handful managed to escape.（AP）