On the Western Front, German forces were concentrated on the North Sea, Channel, Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts, practically vacating a substantial part of French territory. This was the case for the Massif Central region and its western side, Limousin.
Only the main towns were permanently occupied. Specialized troops were combing the area, moving into villages and the countryside, using violence there to create a state of terror. Arrests, cases of deportation, summary executions and fires alternated with quieter periods. Local military staff used them for operations against the maquis. The local population was waiting to be delivered by the Allies. It was morally and materially weary after years of occupation and deprivation, the absence of prisoners of war, and the requirements of forced labor in Germany, or for the Atlantic Wall, and feared repression following maquis activities.
German reinforcements quickly put a stop to these premature liberations, which were followed by violent repression, intended to establish a durable state of terror, as in the case of Tulle. The commune of Oradour-sur-Glane had 1, inhabitants according to the census, and 1, food ration card holders in the first semester of They were spread out among roughly twenty farming villages.
About of them, including the craftsmen and shopkeepers, lived in the town, where the schools, the town hall and church, as well as the marketplace, fairground, train station and post office were situated.
From onward, Oradour-sur-Glane and the neighboring villages housed refugees. The police kept a close watch on foreign refugees and on the local unit of the Communist party β which had been dissolved in β though it was not active in the area.
