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Radio France Internationale
Radio France Internationale
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RFI

France remembers heroic liberation of Paris from Nazi occupation, 80 years ago

The crowd greets members of the French Forces of the Interior (FFI) and tanks of the Leclerc Division parading on August 26, 1944 down Rivoli street, the day after the Liberation of Paris. © AFP

France commemorates on Sunday the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Paris from German Nazi occupation, nine months before the end of World War II. RFI looks at what's being remembered and how.

On 25 August 1944, after a week of strikes, barricades and street battles, the capital welcomed General Charles de Gaulle, the leader of France's provisional government in exile, after four years of Nazi occupation.

"Paris outraged! Paris broken! Paris martyred! But Paris liberated! Liberated by itself. Liberated by its people," the leader of Free France said in an address outside city hall the following day.

He and other key military leaders strode down the Champs-Elysées in triumph.

Each 25 August since then, France remembers the bravery and sacrifice of both the armed forces, Resistance fighters and ordinary citizens who helped free the city from Nazi rule.

In this photograph taken on 26 August 1944, General Charles de Gaulle and other leaders of the efforts to free France from Nazi occupation march on the Champs-Elysees in Paris to celebrate the Liberation of Paris. © AFP

A week-long liberation

Taking back control of Paris didn’t happen overnight. It began a week earlier, on 19 August, when the communist chief of the French Forces of the Interior (FFI), Henri Rol-Tanguy, gave orders for a general uprising.

The faction behind de Gaulle, who was in exile in London, issued the same call the following day.

Six days of street clashes ensued, with fighters from the French Resistance, supported by workers, women and even priests, later joined by French and US soldiers.

French Resistance fighters take position behind a wall in August 1944 during the battle for the liberation of Paris from Nazi occupation during World War II. © AFP

On the evening of 24 August, a column of military vehicles led by Major-General Philippe Leclerc, commander of the French 2nd Armoured Division, began arriving in Paris.

The very first Allied vehicles to drive into the city belonged to the 9th Company known as La Nueve, made up mostly of Spanish Republican fighters.

Paris honours the forgotten Spanish fighters who liberated the French capital

Members of La Nueve enter Paris on 24 August 1944. © Wikimedia Commons

While Hitler had instructed Germany's commander in Paris, Lieutenant-General Dietrich von Choltitz, to flatten the city in the event of an Allied attack, the diplomatic intervention of the then Swedish ambassador Raoul Nordling led Choltitz to ignore orders.

It gave Resistance fighters some extra time to organise their defence.

Some 1,000 Resistance fighters, 600 civilians and 156 French soldiers were killed during the week-long liberation of Paris. The German death toll was 3,200.

Choltitz surrendered at 3.30 pm at the Hotel Meurice, though it would be another nine months before Germany finally admitted defeat, ending World War II in Europe in May 1945.

General Dietrich von Choltitz signs Germany's surrender in the presence of Henri Rol-Tanguy. © Wikimedia Commons

France's Macron launches season of WWII commemorative events

Military parade and Paralympic torch

For the 80th anniversary, Sunday's commemorations begin with mass at Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois church in Paris in memory of the 2nd Armoured Division, while a secular ceremony will be held at the Place de la Bataille de Stalingrad.

At midday, the Paris Fire Service will hoist France's flag on the Champs-Elysées – just as they did on 25 August 1944 in declaring the city free of Nazi occupation.

A wreath will be laid in tribute to Jose Manuel Baron Carreño, a Spanish guerrilla fighter with the French Resistance shot dead by the Nazis on 19 August. He is buried at Patin cemetery in the east of Paris – the area from which the Germans had entered the capital in June 1940.

Ceremonies in the afternoon include one to mark Germany’s surrender at the former Montparnasse station – where Leclerc had established his command post – followed by a tribute to the 2nd Armoured Division in front of the General Leclerc monument.

People gather on 25 August 1944 around a tank from French General Leclerc's 2nd Armoured Division near the banks of the River Seine, in front of Notre-Dame Cathedral. © AFP/STF

The main ceremony, led by President Emmanuel Macron and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, begins at 4.15 pm with a military parade from Porte d'Orleans to Place du Denfert-Rochereau in the south of the city.

At the end, they will welcome the arrival of the Paralympic Flame in France ahead of the opening of the Paralympic Games on 28 August.

The flame will be carried by five torchbearers representing the five towns officially recognised as "Compagnons de la Libération", members of the Order of the Liberation created by de Gaulle to honour those who contributed to France's freedom.

The day’s commemorations draw to a close at 7.30 pm with church bells across the capital chiming in unison.

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