80: Paris Liberation

Liberation of Paris

80 years ago today (August 25, 1944) Paris, France was liberated from German Occupation by the Americans, the British and the Free French during World War 2.

Paris had been occupied by the Germans since June 14, 1940.

Adolf Hitler toured Paris on June 18, 1940.

For the Parisians, the German Occupation was a series of frustrations, shortages and humiliations.

A Curfew was in effect from nine in the evening until five in the morning; at night, the city went dark.

Rationing of food, tobacco, coal and clothing was initiated in September 1940. Every year the supplies grew more scarce and the prices higher. The French Press and Radio Broadcast only German Propaganda.

Jews in Paris were forced to wear the Yellow Star of David Badge, and were barred from certain Professions and Public Places.

On July 16-17, 1942, 13,152 Parisian Jews, including 4,115 Children, were rounded up by the French Police, on orders of the Germans, and were sent to the Auschwitz Death Camp in German-Occupied Poland.

From 1940-1944 the Germans and Vichy French deported a total of  43,000 Jewish Men, Women and Children from Greater Paris and sent them to the Concentration and Deaths Camps in the East where 34,000 were murdered.

Following the Allied Invasion of Normandy on June, 6, 1944, the French Resistance in Paris launched an Uprising on 19 August, seizing the Police Headquarters and other Government Buildings.

On August 7, 1944 , Dietrich von Choltitz was appointed the  Military Governor of the Garrison of "Greater Paris" (Groβ Paris) with 20,000 German Soldiers in Paris.

The French Resistance in Paris had 19,000 Members , but only 60 hand guns, a few machine guns, and no heavy weapons.

On August 15, 1944 the Germans deported 1,654 Men (among them 168 captured Allied Airmen), and 546 Women to the Concentration Camps of Buchenwald (Men) and Ravensbrück (Women.) It was the last Transport to leave France for Germany.

The same day, Employees of the Paris Métro, the Gendarmerie and Police went on strike; Postal Workers followed the next day. They were soon joined by workers across the city, which caused a General Strike to break out on August 18, 1944.

On August 20^th Barricades were erected across Paris by the French Resistance and Ordinary Parisians.

Fighting broke out between the French Resistance and the Germans from August 20^th to 25^th when the Resistance was joined by the Free French and the Americans.

General von Choltitz had been ordered by Hitler to leave the city a "heap of burning ruins", but he also realized the battle was lost, and he did not want to be captured by the Resistance.

Through the offices of the Swedish Consul-General, Raoul Nordling, he ignored Hitler's orders and arranged a truce. In the afternoon of the 25th he traveled from his Headquarters in the Hôtel Meurice to the Montparnasse Train Station, the Headquarters of General Leclerc, where he signed the Surrender.

The Occupation of Paris was officially over.

General Charles de Gaulle held is Free French Victory Parade in Paris on August 26, 1944.

America held its Victory Parade in Paris on August 29, 1944.

2,000 Parisian Civilians were killed during the Liberation of Paris.

1,600 French Resistance Members were killed.

130 Free French Soldiers were killed.

The 2nd Armored Division suffered 71 killed and 225 wounded.

12,800 Germans became Prisoners of War.

The Liberation did not immediately bring peace to Paris; 1,000 People were killed and injured by a German Bombing Raid on August 26^th, the city and region suffered from attacks by German V-1 rockets beginning on September 3^rd; Food Rationing and other restrictions remained in force through the end of the War, but the climate of fear had disappeared.

10,000 Parisians who had Collaborated (French Women had their heads shaved) with the Germans were arrested and tried, 8,000 were convicted, and 116 were executed by the Allies after the War.

General Dietrich von Choltitz was sent to London, England where he stayed for the remainder of the War and then he was transferred to Camp Clinton in Mississippi, USA until his release in 1947. He died in 1966.

General Charles de Gaulle became Chairman of the Provisional Government of the French Republic from June 1944 until January 1946 then the French Prime Minister from 1958-1959 and then the French President from 1959-1969. He died in 1970.

“Is Paris Burning” is a 1966 Film that shows the Liberation of Paris (blending acting with archival footage.)