On May 10, 1940, German troops launched an attack on France, which declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939, in connection with the latter’s attack on Poland. As a result of the rapid advance of German troops using the tactics of lightning war - blitzkrieg, the allied forces were completely defeated, and on June 22 France was forced to sign an armistice. By this time, most of its territory was occupied, and practically nothing remained of the army.
The path of German troops to France ran through the lands of Belgium and the Netherlands, which were the first victims of aggression. German troops in short terms captured them, defeating those who came forward to help French troops and the British Expeditionary Force.
On May 25, the commander-in-chief of the French armed forces General Weygand said at a government meeting that it was necessary to ask the Germans to accept surrender.
On June 8, German troops reached the Seine River. On June 10, the French government moved from Paris to the Orleans area. Paris was officially declared an open city. On the morning of June 14, German troops entered Paris. The French government fled to Bordeaux.
On June 17, the French government turned to Germany with a request for an armistice. On June 22, 1940, France capitulated to Germany, and Compiègne forest The Second Truce of Compiègne was concluded. The result of the armistice was the division of France into an occupation zone of German troops and puppet state, ruled by the Vichy regime.
A Panther tank drives past the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
German soldiers rest on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea near Toulon. A destroyed French destroyer is visible in the background.
The head of the collaborationist government of France, Marshal Henri-Philippe Petain, welcomes French soldiers released from captivity in Germany at the train station in the French city of Rouen.
The ruins of a workshop at the Renault plant in Paris, completely destroyed by British aircraft.
Portrait of Gestapo officer SS Obersturmführer Nikolaus Barbie. Head of the Gestapo in Lyon, where he received the nickname "Executioner of Lyon".
German 88-mm anti-tank gun PaK 43 in occupied Normandy.
German officers near a Horch-901 car in occupied France.
German mounted patrol on one of the streets of Paris.
German troops march through captured Paris.
German soldiers at a street stall in occupied Paris.
Belleville quarter of occupied Paris.
Tank Pz.Kpfw. IV of the 7th Wehrmacht division on the Toulon embankment near the French battleship Strasbourg.
Place de la Concorde in Paris.
An elderly Jewish woman on the street of Paris.
On the Rue des Rosiers in occupied Paris.
Rue de Rivoli in occupied Paris.
Parisians are snapping up food.
On the streets of occupied Paris. German officers near a street cafe.
On the streets of occupied Paris.
French civilian cars running on coal and gas in Paris. In occupied France, all gasoline went to the needs of the German army.
Weighing of jockeys at the Longchamp racecourse. Occupied Paris, August 1943
In the Luxembourg Gardens in occupied Paris.
Famous milliners Rose Valois, Madame Le Monnier and Madame Agnes during the races at the Longchamp racecourse, August 1943.
grave Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
Les Halles market in occupied Paris.
Bicycle taxi at the famous Parisian restaurant “Maxim’s”.
Parisian fashionistas in the Luxembourg Gardens. Occupied Paris, May 1942.
A Parisian woman on the embankment applies lipstick to her lips.
A showcase with a portrait of the French Marshal-collaborator Pétain in occupied Paris.
German soldiers at a checkpoint at a crossroads near Dieppe.
German officers explore the Normandy coast.
A German BMW 320 car after a collision with a Ford BB truck on the street of a French town.
A column of self-propelled guns Panzerjäger I of the 716th Wehrmacht Infantry Division on the march in occupied France.
Two German soldiers on the street of the occupied French town of Granville.
Two German soldiers in a broken Sd.Kfz.231 armored car on the road in occupied Normandy.
Column of German troops in Paris.
For a long time it was believed that this photo depicted the execution of a member of the Resistance movement, but the name of the person in the photo was not known, and there was no documentary evidence that executions were carried out in the Belfort fortress (in particular, not a single cartridge case was found on the territory). Many years after the war, Georges Blind's son, Jean, saw this photograph for the first time and recognized his father in it. He said that his father was not shot in Belfort. He was arrested and kept in a fortress, and later transferred to a concentration camp in Blechhamer (Upper Silesia) where he died. In prison, the Germans subjected Georges Blind to a mock execution, but did not obtain any information from him, and sent him to a camp.
German convoy and half-track tractors Sd.Kfz. 10 near the houses of the French village of Suip.
Five Kriegsmarine sailors see off the submarine U-198 at a bunker in La Pallise, France, on the day the boat went out on its last combat patrol.
Adolf Hitler and Francisco Franco at negotiations in the French town of Hendaye.
Nazi flag over a Paris street, 1940.
Adolf Hitler poses with his entourage in the background Eiffel Tower in Paris 1940. On the left is Albert Speer, Hitler's personal architect, future Reich Minister of Defense Industry and Armament. On the right is sculptor Arno Becker.
Germans eat on the streets of a French city.
Luftwaffe soldiers with a young French woman at the hippodrome in occupied Paris.
A German soldier stands at a book stall on the street of occupied Paris.
A section of the street near the Parisiana cinema in occupied Paris.
German units and a military band are preparing for a review in occupied Paris.
Citizens of occupied France greet the head of the collaborationist Vichy government, Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain.
German officers in a cafe on the street of occupied Paris, reading newspapers, and townspeople. German soldiers passing by greet the seated officers.
Field Marshal E. Rommel with officers observes the work of a plow during an inspection of the Atlantic Wall.
Adolf Hitler at a meeting with Francisco Franco in the French town of Hendaye. 
German soldier plows the land with French peasants on a captured Renault UE wedge.
A German post on the demarcation line dividing occupied and unoccupied France.
German soldiers ride a motorcycle through a destroyed French city.
After the previous post about the Parisian Immortal Regiment a discussion arose: do they celebrate the Victory here, what occupation and liberation were like for the Parisians? I don’t want to give definite answers, nor do I want to draw any conclusions. But I propose to listen to eyewitnesses and see through their eyes.
German soldiers look at Paris from the Eiffel Tower, 1940
Robert Capa. Parisians at the victory parade, 1944
Here are some dry numbers.
- France was defeated by the Germans in a month and a half. She fought in World War I for 4 years.
- During the war, 600 thousand French died. There were one and a half million deaths in World War I.
- 40 thousand people took part in the Resistance movement (about half of them were French)
- Troops of De Gaulle" Free French"in 1943 there were up to 80 thousand people (of which about 40 thousand were French), by the time of the landing in Normandy they reached 400 thousand.
- Up to 300 thousand French served in the German Wehrmacht (23 thousand of them were captured by us).
- 600 thousand French were deported to Germany for forced labor. Of these, 60 thousand died, 50 thousand went missing, 15 thousand were executed.
And any large whole is better perceived through the prism of small events. I will give two stories from my good friends who were children in occupied Paris.
Alexander Andreevsky, son of a white emigrant.
Alexander's mother was Jewish. With the arrival of the Germans, the French began to hand over Jews or point out to the Germans people they suspected of being Jews. “The mother saw how the neighbors began to look askance at her, she was afraid that they would soon report her. She went to the old rabbi and asked what she should do. He gave unusual advice: go to Germany, work there for several months and return with documents that the Germans will issue. But so that her mother’s passport would not be checked when entering Germany, the rabbi told her to knock over a jar of honey in her bag. She did so, and German officer at the border, he disdained to pick up documents stained and stuck together with honey. I lived with friends for four months, and then my mother returned from Germany and no one else had any suspicions towards her."
Francoise d'Origny, hereditary aristocrat.
“During the occupation, we lived in the suburbs of Paris, but my mother sometimes took me with her to the city. In Paris, she always walked hunched over, quietly, like a mouse, looking at the ground and not raising her eyes to anyone. And she made me walk the same way. But one day I saw a young German officer looking at me and smiled back at him - I was 10 or 11 then. My mother instantly gave me such a slap in the face that I almost fell down. I never looked at the Germans again. We were riding on the subway and there were a lot of German officers and soldiers around. Suddenly a tall man called out to my mother, she was very happy, she straightened up and seemed to feel younger. The carriage was crowded, but an empty space seemed to appear around us, such a breath of strength and independence was felt. Then she asked who this man was. The mother answered - Prince Yusupov."
Look at some photos about life during the occupation and liberation of Paris. In selecting them I tried to cover different sides events of that time.
1. German victory parade at the Arc de Triomphe in June 1940 
2. Installation of German signs on Concord Square. 
3. Chaillot Palace. Oath of civil servants and police to the new government 
4. Champs Elysees, " new life", 1940
5. German propaganda truck in Montmartre. Broadcast music to commemorate the 30 days of the capture of Paris. July 1940 
6. A German soldier with a French woman on Trocadéro Square 
7. In the Paris metro 
8. German newspaper saleswoman 
9. Andre Zyukka. Hot day, quay of the Seine, 1943 
10. Andre Zucca. Parisian fashionistas. 1942 
11. Tuileries Garden, 1943 
12. Return to horse traction. There was almost no fuel in the city 
13. Wedding in Montmartre 
14. Pierre Jaan. Remelting monuments into metal. 1941 
15. Sending workers to Germany. 
16. Deportation of Jews, 1941 
17. "Departure from Bobigny." From this station the trains went straight to the death camps. 
18. At the walls of the Louvre. Food was distributed on ration cards, so many people planted vegetable gardens. 
19. Queue at the bakery on the Champs Elysees 
20. Free soup giveaway 
21. Entrance to the Paris metro - air raid warning 
22. Legionnaires of the anti-Bolshevik corps 
23. Volunteer french legion sent to the Eastern Front 
24. Parisians spit on captured British paratroopers, whom the Germans are leading through the city. 
25. Torture of a Resistance member by the German police 
26. Captured members of the Resistance movement are led to execution. 
27. Robert Capa. German paratrooper captured by Resistance partisans 
28. At the barricade in Paris in August 1944 
29. Paris, August 1944. In the center is Simone Seguan, an 18-year-old partisan from Dunkirk. 
30. Robert Capa. Resistance fighters during the liberation of Paris 
31. Shootout with German snipers 
32. Pierre Jamet. Procession of the Leclerc Division, Avenue du Maine. Liberation of Paris, August 1944 
33. Robert Capa. Resistance fighters and French soldiers celebrate the liberation of Paris, August 1944 
34. Parisian woman with allies 
35. Robert Capa. Mother and daughter who were shaved for collaborating with the occupiers. 
36. Robert Capa. Paris welcomes General De Gaulle, August 1944 
They prefer to remember the period of occupation in France as a heroic time. Charles de Gaulle, Resistance... However, impartial photographic footage shows that everything was not exactly as veterans tell and write in history books. These photographs were taken by a correspondent for the German magazine Signal in Paris in 1942-44. Color film, sunny days, the smiles of the French welcoming the occupiers. 63 years after the war, the selection became the exhibition “Parisians during the Occupation”. She caused a huge scandal. The mayor's office of the French capital prohibited its display in Paris. As a result, permission was achieved, but France saw these images only once. Second - public opinion I couldn't afford it anymore. The contrast between the heroic legend and the truth turned out to be too striking.
photo by Andre Zucca from the 2008 exhibition
2. Orchestra on Republic Square. 1943 or 1944
3. Changing of the guard. 1941
5. The public in the cafe.
6. Beach near the Carrousel Bridge. Summer 1943.
8. Parisian rickshaw.
Regarding the photographs “Parisians during the Occupation”. How hypocritical it is for the city authorities to condemn this exhibition for “lack of historical context”! Just the photographs of the journalist-collaborator wonderfully complement other photographs on the same topic, talking mainly about Everyday life Wartime Paris. At the cost of collaboration, this city avoided the fate of London, or Dresden, or Leningrad. Carefree Parisians sitting in a cafe or in a park, boys roller skating, and fishermen on the Seine - these are the same realities of wartime France as the underground activities of members of the Resistance. It is unclear why the organizers of the exhibition could be condemned here. And there is no need for city authorities to become like the ideological commission under the CPSU Central Committee.
9. Rue Rivoli.
10. Showcase with a photograph of Marshal-collaborator Pétain.
11. Kiosk on Avenue Gabriel.
12. Metro Marboeuf-Champs-Elysees (now Franklin-Roosevelt). 1943
13. Shoes made of fiber with a wooden last. 1940s.
14. Poster for the exhibition on the corner of rue Tilsit and the Champs Elysees. 1942
15. View of the Seine from the Quai Saint-Bernard, 1942.
16. Famous milliners Rose Valois, Madame Le Monnier and Madame Agnes during Longchamp, August 1943.
17. Weighing of jockeys at the Longchamp racecourse. August 1943.
18. At the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe, 1942.
19. In the Luxembourg Gardens, May 1942.
20. Nazi propaganda on the Champs Elysees. The text on the poster in the center: "THEY GIVE THEIR BLOOD, GIVE YOUR WORK to save Europe from Bolshevism."
21. Another Nazi propaganda poster issued after the British bombing of Rouen in April 1944. In Rouen, as you know, the British executed the national heroine of France, Joan of Arc. The inscription on the poster: "KILLERS ALWAYS RETURN... TO THE SCENE OF THE CRIME."
22. The caption to the photo says that the fuel for this bus was “city gas.”
23. Two more car monsters from the Occupation times. Both photographs were taken in April 1942. In the top photo is a car, the fuel for which is charcoal. The bottom photo shows a car running on compressed gas.
24. In the garden of the Palais Royal.
25. Central market of Paris (Les Halles) in July 1942. The picture clearly shows one of the metal structures (such as the Baltard pavilions) from the era of Napoleon III, which were demolished in 1969.
26. One of the few black and white photographs of Zucca. It features the national funeral of Philippe Henriot, Secretary of State for Information and Propaganda, who advocated full cooperation with the occupiers. On June 28, 1944, Henriot was shot and killed by members of the Resistance movement.
27. Playing cards in the Luxembourg Gardens, May 1942
28. Public in the Luxembourg Gardens, May 1942
29. At the Parisian Central Market (Les Halles, the very “belly of Paris”) they were called “meat bosses”.
30. Central market, 1942
32. Central market, 1942
33. Central market, 1942
34. Rivoli Street, 1942
35. Rue Rosier in the Jewish quarter of Marais (Jews were required to wear yellow star on the chest). 1942
36. in the Nation quarter. 1941
37. Fair in the Nation quarter. Pay attention to the funny carousel device.
I can’t imagine that, for example, in German-occupied Voronezh, soviet women there were queues for this very thing...
The caption under the photo reads:
"The line in front of the store on Italian Boulevard. One hundred pairs of faux silk stockings are on sale today."
In the context of this wonderful photo, I want to bring you fragments from the book “Paris through the Eyes of a German” by Oscar Reile. It is very interesting...
Germans and the Eiffel Tower. Paris was calmly and busily busy
1. Summer 1940.
"... In the following weeks, the streets of Paris gradually began to come to life again. The evacuated families began to return, take up their former work, life again pulsed almost as before. All this, not least thanks to the measures taken by the commander of the troops in France and his administration. Among other things They were so successfully assigned an exchange rate for the French currency of 20 francs = 1 mark. On the one hand, the German military personnel could still afford something for their allowance, and on the other hand, the French population did not accept German marks as a currency without enthusiasm. payment for labor or goods sold.
Nazi flag over a Paris street, 1940
As a result, in the summer of 1940, a unique way of life was established in Paris. German soldiers were everywhere to be seen, strolling along the boulevards in the company of charming women, sightseeing, or sitting with their companions at tables in bistros or cafés, enjoying food and drinks. In the evenings, such large entertainment venues as the Lido, Folies Bergere, Scheherazade and others were overcrowded. And outside Paris, in the historically famous suburbs - Versailles, Fontainebleau - small groups of German soldiers who had survived the battles and wanted to enjoy life to the fullest met at almost any hour.
Hitler in Paris
... German soldiers very quickly settled into France and, thanks to their correct and disciplined behavior, won the sympathy of the French population.It got to the point where the French openly rejoiced when the German Luftwaffe shot down British planes appearing over Paris.
These correct, largely friendly relations between German soldiers and the French were not marred by anything for almost a year.
Most Germans and French in July 1940 hoped for a quick peace, so Hitler's readiness in his public speech on July 19, 1940 for peace negotiations with Great Britain and the sharply negative response of Lord Halifax a few days later seemed to be almost ignored or taken tragically . But the illusion turned out to be deceptive. There were, perhaps, many Frenchmen in the occupied French territories who took with great interest General De Gaulle’s call to continue the fight against Germany and understood what the statements of the English lord could mean in the future. For this period of time, the circle of such Frenchmen, according to the Abwehr, was still very narrow. Moreover, most of its members wisely behaved quietly and expectantly."
Hitler and his entourage pose in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris in 1940. Left: Albert Speer
2. End of October 1941.
“...industry and the economy continued to work rhythmically, at Renault’s enterprises in Boulogne-Billancourt, trucks for the Wehrmacht rolled off the assembly line uninterruptedly. And at many other enterprises, the French, without any coercion, produced products for our military industry in large volumes and without complaints.
However, at that time the situation in France was significantly determined by the fact that the French government in Vichy made serious efforts to defeat not only the communists, but also the supporters of General De Gaulle. Their instructions to all those under them executive authorities were something like this.
In cities in the occupied French territories, it was easily established that the French police organs cooperate closely and without friction with the organs of our military administration and the secret military police.
Everything gave us the right to believe with confidence that a significantly larger part of the French, as before, stood for Marshal Pétain and his government.
Column of French prisoners at the Palace of Varsailles in Paris
And in Paris, life went on as usual, as before. When the guard company marched along the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe to the music and drums, as before, hundreds and even thousands of Parisians gathered on the sides of the streets to admire the spectacle. Rarely could one read anger and hatred on the faces of the spectators. Rather, the majority looked after the German soldiers with obvious understanding, often even approval. It is the French, thanks to their great andglorious military past and traditions, show greater understanding for such performances that demonstrate strength and discipline. And is it impossible to look at how, in the afternoon and evening, German military men strolled along the boulevards, in taverns, near cafes and bistros at every turn, chatting affably with Frenchmen and Frenchwomen?
Parade of German troops in Paris
... not all of these French were ready to act against us as spies and saboteurs. Millions of them, at least at that moment, did not want to have anything to do with the activities of those compatriots who had already united in groups directed against us. Many of the best representatives of the French did not even think about fighting against Germany. Some believed that they should support the head of their state, Pétain, while others determined their position due to strong hostility towards Great Britain. An example of this is Admiral Darlan.
3. Summer 1942.
"... Laval in his radio address went so far as to say, among other things:
“I wish Germany victory, because without it Bolshevism would reign throughout the world.”
“France, in view of the immeasurable sacrifices of Germany, cannot remain passive and indifferent.”
The effect of these statements by Laval cannot be underestimated. Thousands of workers in a number of French factories for several years, until 1944, worked unconditionally for the German defense industry . Cases of sabotage were very rare. True, it should be noted here that not very many workers all over the world can be persuaded to enthusiastically rush to destroy jobs with their own hands and thereby deprive themselves of a piece of bread.”
Paris March. Triumphal Arch
4. Summer 1943
"A person walking through Paris during the day in the summer of 1943 could easily get the wrong impression of the state of affairs. The streets are busy, most shops are open. The menus of the busy restaurants still offer a rich selection of dishes and delicacies. Their stocks of wonderful wines and various types of champagne seemed inexhaustible Many military personnel and staff members made purchases as in the previous two years.
It was still possible to buy almost everything: clothes, furs, jewelry, cosmetics.
Staff employees could rarely resist the temptation to compete with Parisian women in civilian attire. Dressed in French dress, powdered and made up, you wouldn’t even recognize them as German women in the city. This brought to mind a high official from Berlin who once came to visit us at the Lutetia Hotel. He recommended that I put an end to it.
Then I gave a presentation (though of little benefit) to the women's auxiliary staff subordinate to me. One of them, named Isolde, then appeared in my office and said: “If you can’t stand my makeup, then transfer me to Marseilles. There in our department I know someone who finds me beautiful just the way I am.”
Isolde was transferred to Marseille."
Military parade on the Champs Elysees
Not far from the Arc de Triomphe. France. June 1940
Walking around Paris
German tour at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Paris
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Please note, unlike the photo above, the fire does not burn (apparently due to savings or by order of the German command)
German officers in a cafe on the street of occupied Paris. 07.1940
German officers near a Parisian cafe
German soldiers try French "fast food"
Parisian shopping. November 1940
Paris. Summer 1940 People like this Frenchwoman will later find their own...
A German tank PzKpfw V "Panther" drives near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris
In the Paris metro. 01/31/1941
Fräulein is walking...
On a donkey through Paris!
German units and a military band are preparing for a review in Paris
German military band on the street of Paris
German mounted patrol on one of the streets of Paris
German machine gunner against the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower
German prisoners walk along a Parisian street. 08/25/1944
Paris. Past and present
About the uprising in Paris
(TIPPELSKIRCH “HISTORY OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR”):
“The 1st American Army had the task, if possible, to bypass and encircle Paris in order to rid the city of fighting and destruction. Very soon, however, it became clear that such precautions were unnecessary. Hitler, however, ordered the defense of Paris to the last man and the blowing up of all bridges over the Seine, regardless of the inevitable destruction of architectural monuments, but commandant General von Choltitz did not have forces sufficient to defend this city with a million people.
From the personnel of the occupation authorities and rear services, they managed to scrape together 10 thousand people. They, however, would not be enough even to maintain the authority of the German authorities within the city in the face of the well-organized forces of the French Resistance Movement. Consequently, the defense of the city would result in street battles with senseless human casualties. The German commandant decided to come into contact with representatives of the Resistance Movement, which became more and more active as the front approached and threatened to provoke fighting in the city, and to conclude a kind of “truce” before the city was occupied by Allied forces.
This kind of “truce” was violated only in some places by overly impatient members of the Resistance Movement, which was immediately followed by energetic resistance from the German side. The commandant refused to blow up the bridges over the Seine, thanks to which the remarkable architectural monuments of the city located near the bridges were saved. As for interests German army, then they did not suffer at all, for the Americans had crossed the Seine long before in other places. Paris remained in this transitional state until August 25, when one of the French tank divisions entered it.”
p.s.
“If German rule brought us prosperity, nine out of ten Frenchmen would put up with it, and three or four would accept it with a smile.”
writer Andre Gide, July 1940, shortly after the defeat of France...
After the previous entry about the Parisian Immortal Regiment, a discussion arose: do they celebrate the Victory here, which was the occupation and liberation for the Parisians? I don’t want to give definite answers, nor do I want to draw any conclusions. But I suggest listening to eyewitnesses, looking through their eyes, and thinking about a few numbers.
German soldiers look at Paris from the Eiffel Tower, 1940
Robert Capa. Parisians at the victory parade, 1944
Here are some dry numbers.
- France was defeated by the Germans in a month and a half. She fought in World War I for 4 years.
- During the war, 600 thousand French died. There were one and a half million deaths in World War I.
- 40 thousand people took part in the Resistance movement (about half of them were French)
- The troops of De Gaulle’s “Free France” numbered up to 80 thousand people (of which about 40 thousand were French)
- Up to 300 thousand French served in the German Wehrmacht (23 thousand of them were captured by us).
- 600 thousand French were deported to Germany for forced labor. Of these, 60 thousand died, 50 thousand went missing, 15 thousand were executed.
And any large whole is better perceived through the prism of small events. I will give two stories from my good friends who were children in occupied Paris.
Alexander Andreevsky, son of a white emigrant.
Alexander's mother was Jewish. With the arrival of the Germans, the French began to hand over Jews or point out to the Germans people they suspected of being Jews. “My mother saw how her neighbors began to look askance at her, she was afraid that they would soon report her. She went to the old rabbi and asked what she should do. He gave unusual advice: go to Germany, work there for several months and return with documents that the Germans will issue But so that when entering Germany, my mother’s passport would not be checked, the rabbi told her to dump a jar of honey in her bag. She did so, and the German officer at the border disdained to pick up the documents stained and stuck together with honey. For four months I lived with friends. and then the mother returned from Germany and no one else had any suspicions towards her."
Francoise d'Origny, hereditary aristocrat.
“During the occupation, we lived in the suburbs of Paris, but my mother sometimes took me with her to the city. In Paris, she always walked hunched over, quietly, like a mouse, looking at the ground and not raising her eyes to anyone. And she made me walk the same way. But one day I saw a young German officer looking at me and smiled back at him - I was 10 or 11 then. My mother instantly gave me such a slap in the face that I almost fell down. I never looked at the Germans again. We were on the subway and there were a lot of Germans around. Suddenly a tall man called out to my mother, she was very happy, she straightened up and seemed to feel younger. The car was crowded, but an empty space seemed to appear around us, such a breath of strength and independence. Who was this man? The mother answered - Prince Yusupov."
Look at a few photographs about life during the occupation and liberation of Paris, I think they give reason for thought.
1. German victory parade at the Arc de Triomphe in June 1940
2. Installation of German signs on Concord Square.
3. Chaillot Palace. Oath of civil servants and police to the new government
4. Champs Elysees, "new life", 1940
5. German propaganda truck in Montmartre. Broadcast music to commemorate the 30 days of the capture of Paris. July 1940
6. A German soldier with a French woman on Trocadéro Square
7. In the Paris metro
8. German newspaper saleswoman
9. Andre Zyukka. Hot day, Seine embankment
10. Andre Zucca. Parisian fashionistas. 1942
11. Tuileries Garden, 1943
12. Return to horse traction. There was almost no fuel in the city
13. Wedding in Montmartre
14. Pierre Jaan. Remelting monuments into metal. 1941
15. Sending workers to Germany.
16. Deportation of Jews, 1941
17. "Departure from Bobigny." From this station the trains went straight to the death camps.
18. At the walls of the Louvre. Food was distributed on ration cards, so many people planted vegetable gardens.
19. Queue at the bakery on the Champs Elysees
20. Free soup giveaway
21. Entrance to the Paris metro - air raid warning
22. Legionnaires of the anti-Bolshevik corps
23. The French Volunteer Legion is sent to the Eastern Front
24. Parisians spit on captured British paratroopers, whom the Germans are leading through the city.
25. Torture of a Resistance member by the German police
26. Captured members of the Resistance movement are led to execution.
27. Robert Capa. German paratrooper captured by Resistance partisans
28. At the barricade in Paris in August 1944
29. Street fighting in Paris. In the center is Simone Seguan, an 18-year-old partisan from Dunkirk.
30. Robert Capa. Resistance fighters during the liberation of Paris
31. Shootout with German snipers
32. Pierre Jamet. Procession of the Leclerc Division, Avenue du Maine. Liberation of Paris, August 1944
33. Robert Capa. Resistance fighters and French soldiers celebrate the liberation of Paris, August 1944
34. Parisian woman with allies
35. Robert Capa. Mother and daughter who were shaved for collaborating with the occupiers.
36. Robert Capa. Paris welcomes General De Gaulle, August 1944
P.S. And now the French imagine themselves as the victorious nation in World War II, and participate in Victory celebrations...
Yeah...
