Paris celebrates 75th anniversary of liberation from Nazis
August 25, 2019
Exactly 75 years ago, French resistance fighters, US soldiers and others freed Paris from years of Nazi occupation. The City of Light is marking the event with a parade — tracing the path tanks took when they arrived.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/Z. Abdelkafi
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Remembering the liberation of Paris, 75 years later
Exactly 75 years ago, French Resistance fighters, US soldiers and others freed Paris from years of Nazi occupation. DW takes a look back at the days that shaped one of the most important moments in World War II.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photos/J. Carroll
Long road to freedom
The battle to regain control of Paris was an effort over several days that involved French Resistance fighters, US troops and Spanish republican exiles. Troop reinforcements arrived on August 24, several days after resistance fighters launched an uprising in the city. Paris was officially freed when the Germans formally surrendered control of the city on August 25, 1944.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photos/J. Carroll
Paris fights back
The uprising began on August 19, 1944, when police joined forces with Resistance fighters as well as striking city workers. Clashes erupted between occupying Nazi forces, and an estimated 5,000 people were killed in skirmishes over the next few days.
Image: Getty Images/Keystone
Taking back the city one neighborhood at a time
French Resistance leader Henri Rol-Tanguy called residents of Paris to action, putting posters up around the city calling for barricades to be built. Resistance fighters extended their control to cover entire neighborhoods. The barricade pictured above was set up at the Rue du Renard next to the Paris City Hall.
Image: Getty Images/AFP
German officers captured
In this picture taken on August 28, 1944, high-ranking German officers captured by French forces are marched through the streets of the French capital. Adolf Hitler had ordered the German military commander of Paris, General Dietrich von Choltitz, to blow up the city's landmarks before the Allies regained control of the city. Although bombs were placed, they were not detonated.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo
Celebration in the City of Light
"All the emotions suppressed by four years of German domination surged through the people. The streets of the city as we entered were like a combined Mardi Gras, Fourth of July celebration, American Legion convention and New Year's Eve in Times Square all packed into one," wrote Don Whitehead, a reporter for The Associated Press. It was the first eyewitness account published in the US press.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/H. Harris
'It was a new thing, something good had changed'
Allied troops were greeted as heroes when they entered the city, said Harold Radish, a 95-year-old US veteran, who was in Paris for the commemorations. "That's what's important about the liberation of Paris, it was a new thing, something good had changed; the world was gonna get a little better," Radish, who is Jewish, told The Associated Press.
Image: Getty Images/AFP
'Paris martyred! But Paris liberated!'
General Charles de Gaulle (center, saluting) marched through the jubilant streets of Paris after it was freed from Nazi control, walking alongside resistance leaders and commemorating fallen soldiers. "These are minutes which go beyond each of our poor lives. Paris! Paris outraged! Paris broken! Paris martyred! But Paris liberated!" he said in his victory speech.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/A. Lopez
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Paris is marking the 75th anniversary of its liberation from Nazi German occupation on Sunday with a parade and ceremonies across the city.
French Resistance fighters, Allied troops, Spanish republican exiles and others are being honored for their part in freeing the city during World War II.
A parade will retrace the path that French and American tanks took when they entered southern Paris on August 25, 1945.
Later on Sunday, firefighters will raise a French flag on the Eiffel Tower, remembering the moment 75 years ago when a tricolor flag sewn together from sheets was flown atop the monument — replacing the swastika flag of occupying Nazi Germany that had flown there for four years.
In a ceremony on Saturday, Paris' Spanish-born mayor, Anne Hidalgo, paid tribute to the Spanish republican exiles who were part of the first unit to enter the city on August 24, 1944.
Inaugurating a mural in their honor was "a way of commemorating how foreigners, and Spanish people, took part in the liberation of our city and our country," said Hidalgo, accompanied by Spanish Justice Minister Dolores Delgado.
The fight for Paris began with a Resistance-led uprising on August 19, 1944. Allied troops entered the city on August 24, and the German military commander of Paris officially surrendered on August 25.
To mark the anniversary, The Associated Press republished its report on the liberation written by reporter Don Whitehead, who witnessed it firsthand.
"But when the last enemy resistance crumbled at the gate to Paris, then this heart of France went mad — wildly, violently mad with happiness," Whitehead wrote.
"Never do I expect to see such scenes as I saw on the streets of Paris. There was only a narrow lane through which the armor could roll. Men and women cried with joy. They grabbed the arms and hands of soldiers and cheered until their voices were hoarse," he said.
Although the fight to free the French capital was faster than the Allies' battles in Normandy, it was still chaotic and violent, killing an estimated 5,000 people.
