Sad chapter in history

France is much bigger than many of us Americans realize. We drove about eight hours from Chinon to our next stop, at Sarlat in southwest France. On the way, we stopped at a tiny village called Mortemart for a picnic lunch. That's our French guide, Arnaud, opening a bottle of wine for us.

After that, we drove to one of the saddest places in France. It is a village called Oradour-sur-Glane, and it was totally wiped out by the Nazis during World War II, in June 1944. This village had no guns or fighters, just ordinary French villagers. Yet some Nazi troops marched into town and rounded up all 642 people who lived here. The kids had to leave their schools, the farmers and shopkeepers and housewives, everybody, had to come to the square.

Then the women and children were locked up in the church. The men were separated into smaller groups, taken to different parts of the village and shot. After that, the Nazis burned down the church, with the the women and children inside. Then they burned down the entire village. Almost everyone in the village was killed that day.

Today, the village is left as it was, with most buildings destroyed as they were that day. You can see stone ruins of homes and shops, burned out hulks of cars and sewing machines and strollers, and even the remains of the church.

Seeing this place of horror really makes you think. I learned a new word, in French, on many of the signs: "Recueillez-vous." It means: stop, think, go deep inside your heart, reflect. I may have misspelled it, but I remember how it felt.

It's hard to imagine what can make people be so cruel to other people.