Tulle massacre

Tulle massacre
Part of World War II
Location	Tulle, Corrèze, Limousin, France
Date	1944
Deaths	117 killed 7–9 June, 149 deported (of whom 101 died in Dachau)
Victims	French civilians
Perpetrators	Nazi Germany, 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich

The Tulle massacre refers to the roundup and summary execution of civilians in the French town of Tulle by the Nazi 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich in June 1944 three days after the D-Day landings in World War II.

After a successful offensive by the French Resistance group Francs-tireur on 7 and 8 June 1944, the arrival of Das Reich troops forced the Maquis to flee the city of Tulle (department of Corrèze) in south-central France. On 9 June 1944, after arresting all men between the ages of sixteen and sixty, the SS and members of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) ordered 120 of the prisoners to be hanged, of whom 99 were actually hanged. In the days that followed, 149 men were sent to the Dachau concentration camp, where 101 lost their lives. In total, the actions of the Wehrmacht, the Waffen-SS, and the SD claimed the lives of 213 civilian residents of Tulle.

A day later, the same Panzer Division was involved in the massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane.

At the beginning of 1944, after suffering heavy losses on the Eastern Front, the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich, under the command of Gruppenführer Heinz Lammerding regrouped in Valence-d'Agen to prepare to depart for the Western Front. They were to respond to the purported landing of 18,000 Allied soldiers supported by light armored vehicles and tanks.

Historically, there have been several theories for the reason behind the 2nd Panzer Division's role in the massacres. According to Peter Lieb, these were the division's heavy belief in the ideology of National Socialism, their battle experience on the Eastern Front, that they saw themselves as an elite military unit, and that they had already participated in engagements with the French Resistance.

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