The liberation of the city is formally commemorated on August 25th with parades, speeches and wreath-laying – but the uprising against the Nazi occupiers began several days earlier, starting with a strike.
READ ALSO The bloody and chaotic weeks that led to the liberation of Paris
Here’s a look at some key moments from these dramatic days, some tragic, others more joyful.
Shot in 1944, died in 2005
On the morning of August 19th, Parisians first rose up. The police, who had been on strike for four days, reoccupied their HQ.
Police officer Armand Bacquer, 24, was arrested by the Germans and shot by a firing squad with a colleague on the banks of the river Seine.
While his colleague died on the spot, Bacquer, left for dead, was rescued the next day. He was operated on, survived and resumed his job as a police officer. He died in his sleep more than 60 years later in 2005.
Champagne in the park
On August 19th, Madeleine Riffaut who had been arrested, tortured and sentenced to death by the Nazis after killing a junior Nazi officer, was freed.
She was then sent on a mission to intercept a German train as it passed through the Buttes Chaumont park in northeastern Paris. With three comrades she pounded the train with explosives from a bridge over a tunnel, captured 80 German soldiers and then partied on the Champagne and foie gras the Germans were taking home.
“Let us say, we celebrated on that day: it was August 23rd. I was 20,” she said.
Aux barricades
On August 22nd, Parisians responded to the call of resistance leader Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy to go “To the barricades!”
The Parisians, determined to take part in their own liberation, erected a chain of 600 barricades, including paving stones, rails, bathtubs, mattresses, and trees, to block the Germans’ movement.
Sleepless night
“It was only on the evening (of August 24th) around 9:45 pm that the news broke across Paris: at 9:28 pm the first French tank, the Romilly, arrived at the town hall. Everywhere there was an indescribable emotion,” wrote Jean Le Quiller, journalist for the newly-created Agence France- Presse.
“Whole apartment blocks sang the Marseillaise, whole streets applauded in the night… A concert of bells filled the air… bringing tears to the eyes,” he wrote.
As allied troops entered from different sides of Paris, AFP wrote: “Now it is for sure: they are there. Paris will not sleep tonight.”
The next day Colonel Rol-Tanguy accepted the surrender of German General Dietrich von Choltitz, ending four years of occupation.
School battle
On August 25th, Brigadier Pierre Deville, who had just returned from Morocco, called his parents and said: “I’m on my way.”
With his platoon he went to the military school to the west of Paris where the Germans were holed up. It took nearly four hours to neutralise them.
Deville was then shot in the head. It was his 20th birthday.
Fireman’s revenge
On the same day, not far away, fireman Captain Sarniguet climbed the 1,700 steps of the Eiffel Tower.
It was sweet revenge for the man the Nazis had ordered in June 1940 to take down France’s tricolour flag from the top. He put up French flags, cobbled together with low quality dyes and sown in secret by the wives of junior officers.
So the French flag replaced the swastika which had been flying for about 1,500 days. “The only obstacle I met was the wind,” Sarniguet said.
Shooting at de Gaulle
On August 26th, French wartime leader General Charles de Gaulle made a triumphant return from exile in London, parading in liberated Paris. He arrived late for a prayer of praise at Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral.
As he greeted the crowd in the square from an open-topped car, gunfire broke out. He brushed it off and carried on his way. He put it down to a coup by counter-revolutionaries seeking to sow panic and seize power.
The underground bunker from which Resistance leader Colonel Rol-Tanguy directed the battle for the liberation of Paris is now a museum – the Musée de la Libération Leclerc Moulin – which is highly recommended to anyone interested in French history of this period.
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You omit to mention that Paris was also liberated by the US 4th Infantry.
The 4th Infantry waited to enter Paris after the French Army, believing it was only proper that the French liberate Paris. My grandfather was the first American chaplain to enter Paris, and made sure he went in with the first unit. He was a short man with a mustache, and was in a Jeep marked “Chaplain”, leading people to point and call out “Charlie Chaplin!”
Much more to tell, for example, that not all French citizens were opposed to the Germans, and some even betrayed their neighbors to the Gestapo. Also, for the triumphant march down the Champs Elysées, all soldiers were white, despite the fact that de Gaulle had recruited in African colonies, e.g., Chad, and many soldiers were black. it was apparently at the behest (or order) of General Eisenhower that soldiers on parade should be white.
I am a funeral celebrant among other things, and a few years ago I had the modest privilege of writing and conducting the service of a long -retired British army officer (in his 80s when he died) who was the first British officer to liberate Bergen Belsen. Aged 23. He subsequently rode in the vehicle behind de Gaulle into Paris, so I presume it was the day of August 26th.
There’s an excellent film made in 1966 called “Is Paris Burning” – “Paris brûle-t-il?” adapted from the book of the same name. Extremely authentic without any Hollywoodization, very amusing in parts despite the drama of the occasion, and highly recommended. Lots of sources on Google for streaming, downloading, CDs etc. in both languages.