On the occasion of the eightieth anniversary of the liberation, the AFP news agency has collected some important moments from this historic event – some tragic, others more joyful.
Shot in 1944, died in 2005
The morning of August 19 marked the first action. The police, who had been on strike for four days, took back their headquarters.
Police officer Armand Bacquer (24) was arrested by the Nazis and shot by a firing squad together with a colleague on the banks of the river Seine.
While the colleague died instantly, Bacquer, who was left on the bank, was rescued the next day. He was operated on, survived and continued to work as a police officer. More than 60 years later, in 2005, he died in his sleep.
Champagne and foie gras
On August 19, Madeleine Riffaud, who had been arrested, tortured and sentenced to death by the Nazis after killing a junior Nazi officer, was finally released.
She was then sent on a mission to intercept a German train as it passed through the Buttes Chaumont park in northeastern Paris.
Together with three others, they dropped explosives on the train from a bridge over a tunnel, captured 80 German soldiers and then partied with the champagne and foie gras that the Germans were to take home.
– For us, the celebration was that day: It was 23 August. I was 20, says Riffaud, who turned 100 on 23 August this year.
“To the barricades!”
On 22 August, Parisians responded to the call from resistance leader Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy to go “to the barricades!”.
Determined to take part in their own liberation, the Parisians set up 600 barricades in a long chain.
The barricades consisted of, among other things, cobblestones, train tracks, bathtubs, mattresses and trees, and they were supposed to stop the Germans from moving around freely.
A sleepless night in Paris
– It was only on the evening of August 24 at around 9.45pm that the news became known in Paris: At 9.28pm the first French tank, Romilly, had arrived at the town hall. Everywhere there was an indescribable feeling, wrote Jean Le Quiller, journalist for the then newly established Agence France-Presse (AFP).
– Entire blocks of flats sang the national anthem, entire streets were filled with people applauding at night. A concert of bells filled the air and brought tears to his eyes, he wrote further.
As the Allied forces entered from different sides of Paris, AFP wrote: “Now it is certain: They are here. 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.
Killed on his 20th birthday
On August 25, Brigadier General Pierre Deville, who had just returned from Morocco, called his parents and said, “I’m on my way.”
With his soldiers he went to the military school west of Paris, where the Germans had gathered. It took almost four hours to neutralize them.
Deville was shot in the head. It happened on his 20th birthday.
A fire marshal’s revenge
That same day, not far away, fire constable Captain Sarniguet climbed the 1,700 steps to the Eiffel Tower.
It was sweet revenge for the man the Nazis had ordered in June 1940 to take down the French flag from the top. He had in recent days shown resistance by hanging French flags, put together with low-quality dyes and secretly sewn by the wives of junior officers.
At the top of the Eiffel Tower, he replaced the swastika, which had flown there for about 1,500 days, with the French tricolor.
– The only obstacle I faced was the wind, said Sarniguet.
Kuler welcomed de Gaulle
On 26 August, French war leader General Charles de Gaulle returned triumphantly from exile in London to parade in liberated Paris. However, he was late for the service held there to celebrate the liberation.
When he greeted the crowd from a car with an open roof, shots were suddenly heard, but de Gaulle did not allow himself to be affected.
According to him, it was another coup attempt by counter-revolutionaries who tried to spread panic and seize power.
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2024-08-27 12:07:14
