WWII remains exhumed in France

The location of the graves was kept secret for decades

French authorities have exhumed the bodies of 17 German soldiers shot dead by French Resistance fighters in World War II to give them a proper burial.

The soldiers were executed in 1944 in France in revenge for the killing of village residents by German troops.

The men's bodies will be blessed before they are flown to Germany and buried in a military cemetery.

Dog tags found in the grave will be sent to Berlin in case relatives can be identified.

'Against orders'

On 9 August 1944 members of the French Resistance killed and captured several German troops in the small village of Saint Julien de Crempse, in the south-western Dordogne region.

German troops retaliated several days later by rounding up and executing 17 local villagers, aged from 17 to 81.

One month afterwards, French Resistance fighters took 17 German prisoners captured in the earlier battle to the village and shot them, burying them in a village field.

The Resistance fighters' commander had promised the men they would not be harmed but it appears his fighters defied orders.

The location of the graves had long been kept a secret by village residents, until former Resistance fighter Emile Guet tracked down one of the few people still alive who remembered the incident.

'Shocking affair'

Andre Parvieux was 11 when, as a choirboy, he accompanied the local priest to the soldier's burial.

And years later, he pointed out the site to Mr Guet, the Associated Press news agency reported.

"It was a very shocking affair," Mr Guet said.

"Unarmed men were gunned down and on top of that, they went back on the word of my major, who was a man of honour."

Mr Guet contacted the curator of a German military museum, Julien Hauser, who met local leaders in the village and forged a deal to repatriate the men's remains.

The men will be reburied 16 November.