25th August 1944 - Maillé, the martyred village.

The ruins of Maillé after the massacre of 25th August 1944

In France, many remember the terrible massacre and destruction of Oradour-sur-Glane on the 10th June 1944. But who knows what happened to the village of Maillé, in the Indre et Loire, France, on the 25th August 1944 ?

That day, while Paris was being liberated, Maillé was victim of an organized massacre committed by the German army to avenge Resistance action.

This massacre cost the lives of 124 villagers and most of these were women and children.

It was in the morning of Friday 25th August 1944, that the German armed forces of the SS division surrounded the village and progressively shot any civilians that crossed their path. Any villagers seen were tracked down, murdered and their houses burned.

The massacre lasted the whole morning. Cannons bombarded the village eventually destroying it in the afternoon and until late in the evening.

Second-Lieutenant Gustav Schlueter, who commanded military lodgings at Sainte-Maure, was found guilty of the Maillé massacre and was condemned to death in his absence in 1952 by the military tribunal in Bordeaux. But he was never found, and never executed.

The identity of the SS division that perpetrated the massacre and destruction of Maillé under Second-Lieutenant Schlueter’s orders, remains unknown.


Unlike the village of Oradour-sur-Glane, Maillé has not been left in the past. The village was entirely rebuilt at the end of the 1940s, giving it a very particular character. A commemorative ceremony takes place every year on the 25th August. Now, after the fiftieth anniversary of the massacre, and because there are still living witnesses, Maillé is contemplating the creation of a memorial museum.


The Post Office and Town Hall, rebuilt around 1948
My grandparents, Mr and Mrs Roy, worked at the Post Office in Maillé, they survived the massacre by hiding in the school cellar. I wanted to make this site to bring to light a tragic and little-known event of the end of World War II, an event which my family miraculously escaped and by which they were profoundly marked.

To create this site, I have used my grandparents’ accounts and the following articles :
- « Maillé martyr » (Maillé, the martyr), by Father André Payon, Maillé’s parish priest in 1944
- « En Touraine, je me souviens. Maillé » (In Touraine, I remember Maillé), a brochure published by the Indre-et-Loire county council
- « Le magazine de la Touraine » (Touraine Magazine), the district's quarterly magazine, July 1984

If you have any thoughts on this site, please contact me at this address : acroy@club-internet.fr