The act that was passed in April 1946 classified Oradour as a historic monument and mandated that the ruins be preserved as they were. The result was the curiously hybrid status of the site, at once a shrine to the memory of the dead villagers and a monument to the nation’s suffering, a place of pilgrimage and a tourist destination for the public at large. The intent of the act was to allow the remains of the village to speak for themselves, to preserve a moment in time “for all eternity” in a state of material authenticity …
Bio:
Anthony Purdy’s “Mariupol” recently won the Writer’s Federation of Nova Scotia 2022 Postcard Poem contest.