Perpetrators of WWII massacre were based in Chatellerault

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Some 64 years after the massacre by German soldiers of 124 people in the village of Maille (Indre et Loire), the alleged perpetrators have been identified, newspaper Le Figaro revealed yesterday.  A German Waffen-SS batallion stationed in neighbouring Chatellerault was responsible for the attack during World War II, according to German prosecutor Ulrich Maass.

Maass, a specialist prosecutor from Dortmund, started the investigation four years ago after reading about the un-solved mystery in a German newspaper, and he visited the village in July with a team of investigators.  

Of the three alleged perpetrators who have been named, two are already dead while the fate of the third remains unknown.

An upsurge in resistance activities in the area around Maillé was said to have been a trigger for the massacre, which occurred on the same day as General Philippe Leclerc led triumphant allied troops into Paris, August 25, 1944.  The German troops slaughtered 124 of the 500 inhabitants including forty-four children.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited Maillé in August to attend a ceremony marking the event.   The massacre did not originally get the attention it deserved, coming as it did on the day France celebrated liberation from the Nazis.