ORADOUR-SUR-GLANE, France (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron has called on young people to remember past wars and use democratic means to fight against today's barbarities during a commemoration at the site of the deadliest massacre in Nazi-occupied France.

Macron told 500 children aged 12 to 16 in Oradour-sur-Glane in western France that "we would like to be able to say that from now on this happens away from home or that it no longer happens. But Rwanda or Yugoslavia yesterday, Syria today. They are only a few hours by plane."

On June 10, 1944, an SS armored division herded villagers into barns and a church, blocked the doors, and set them ablaze — 642 people died, six survived.

Macron slowly walked in the ruins, which are preserved as a testimony to Nazi horrors.