Massacre at Oradour

New York, NY, U.S.A.: Random House, 1989. Book has 165 pages with a few illustrations. In 1982, Robin Mackness lost his job, his fortune, and his freedom when he discovered the truth behind the Oradour massacre. This is his story and that of the 642 French civilians who were savagely murdered on June 10, 1944. In Massacre at Oradour, a bizarre mystery of World War II is unraveled in a gripping drama of international high finance and treachery. On June 10, 1944, four days after the invasion of Normandy, an SS company rounded up all the men, women, and children of Oradour, a remote village in southwestern France, and brutally murdered all but a handful of its almost seven hundred inhabitants. Why Oradour had been singled out for destruction by the Nazis was never adequately explained and remained a mystery for forty-four years until a quirk of fate led Robin Mackness on an extraordinary search to uncover the facts behind the atrocity. In 1982, Mackness was asked to carry out an unusual favor for a colleague who was on the board of directors of a Swiss bank. He was to contact one of the bank's clients, an elderly Frenchman named Raoul, and deliver what Raoul would give him to a third party. Assured by his colleague of the legality of the transaction, Mackness agreed. The rendezvous went as planned, but when Mackness found out that he was going to be transporting a fortune in gold bullion, he insisted Raoul tell him where it came from. The last leg of Mackness's mission became a nightmare. Stopped by French customs cers near Lyon, Mackness refused to reveal the identities of his banking colleague their client and spent the following twenty two months in prison. It was in prison that he began to research the background of Raoul's extraordinary story And now, after five of thorough investigation, interviewing former members of the Resistance former members of the SS, Mackness is convinced he has found the answer to the secret behind the terrible massacre at Oradour. Clean. Hard Cover. Near Fine/Near Fine. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.