This is indeed an important piece of evidence. Kahn was an SS Officer, 2IC of the unit present at Oradour. He clearly states that the Germans intentionally and deliberately murdered the hundreds of women and children in the church at Oradour, as well of course as all the men-folk in the barns and surrounding area.Hans Weber wrote:Hello
As to how the explosives would possibly be brought into action:
"After a while, I was called into the village again by a messenger to see the commander and found him approximately 30 m distant from the church. I first asked him the question what he wanted to do now. Enough had happened. The village was burning at this time. I remember that in the proximity to the church was standing the parsonage, it was also burning. However I said then to the commander that he should at least let the women run. I believe I said to him that he should chase the women into the forest. The only remark Dieckmann (sic) made was: That it was out of the question. Whereupon he asked the question: Do you have explosives with you? I answered: “No”. Thereupon, an Unterscharführer behind me who was the equipment manager for arms and ammunition, answered: “Yes Sturmbannführer I still have something on the wagon”. He said that he had a batch of 2 or 4 kilos of explosive with him. I turned around and only said to the Unterführer: “Idiot”. Dieckmann (sic) however ordered him to get the explosives and asked me whether I had any idea of blasting. Although I had a pioneer-education as an old infantryman, I declared: “No”. On this question of Dieckmann (sic), an Unterschaführer, who wanted to have an explosive-certificate, came forward. He got the command to install the explosives in the church and to ignite them. I did not see where this charge was installed since I did not go along. On the other hand Dieckmann (sic) accompanied the Unterführer. I assume that the charge was put within the building. When the explosion was carried out, the Unterführer was most severely injured. I saw him hurled outside through the church-door covered in blood. I am not familiar with the name of this Unterführer, however he died of his injury. After the explosion, the whole ground staggered and a deafening noise was to be heard from the church. The walls themselves remained standing. I noticed that Dieckmann (sic) meanwhile collected some teams with MG's (Machine Guns) and hurried to the church-door. This business was to me so jarring that I turned away and moved away a northerly direction. I was accompanied by a messenger of my company-troop. We both went into a house at the village-edge, not yet burned and sat down. I was there for approximately one hour. About then Dieckmann (sic) appeared and gave me the command to collect the company. During this hour, conflagration reigned in Oradour, during which we heard explosions from time to time that were interconnected with a rattle, like a firework. I assume that ammunition that had been stored in the houses went up."
This is the Kahn statement, as Wolfkin already has pointed out.
http://www.oradour.info/appendix/kahnsta1.htm
I point it out again, because I'm under the impression that it largely went unnoticed. I also assume that the Dortumund files are actually at the basis of the ominous archives in Germany that was the subject of the very first post in this thread. Not a military archive, but a tribunal one. Its pros and cons in terms of value to the discussion are imho very well evalutated on the website in question.
As to the flame throwers seemingly issued as standard fare to the Panzergrenadier Bn in the SS, reality in 1944 was quite different. Looking at my original sources, I can't find any evidence for this in 2.SS PD. From an allowance of 86, it only had 6 on May 20th 1944. In case of LAH, I have positive proof that the whole division only fielded 8 flamethrowers during the same period. As this is a most dangerous weapon for the employer, you would not find it issued to inexperienced troops, thus it is unlikely anybody else but the Pioniere were trained on this weapon and nobody else kept it. How things can backfire if untrained personel are using specialist equipement is vividly illustrated in the above statment by Kahn.
Cheers
Hans
However, as Hans touches upon and as the author of the website (Michael Williams) quite correctly points out, Kahn’s statement needs to be treated with a degree of caution for various reasons (these are succinctly detailed on the website so I won’t repeat them here).
It’s a powerful and intriguing statement nonetheless, and it would appear to add substantial weight to the case against the SS.
Regards,
Andre