Wayback Wednesdays: Liberation Of Paris

76 years ago today, August 26, 1944, was the first day Parisians could wake up to a free and liberated city since the Nazis took over.

It was never completely clear whether or not the allies would even try to take the city: the cost in men and materiel was too drastic and it would shorten the war just to bypass paris and push towards Germany. But de Gaulle saw things much differently. He wanted Paris liberated, and right now. He was quite concerned, almost paranoid, about being the ruler of France once the liberation was complete.

The communists in France wanted to rule as well, and there were many more of them among the French Resistence. de Gaulle figured if he didn't get Paris liberated by the allies right away he'd lose his chance. The communists, on the other hand, were just as fierce, with their leader saying that if they had to burn the city to the ground and take 200,000 casualties, it would be worth it if they could end up with France.

And they weren't alone. Hitler had sent a specially-selected general to Paris, Maj. Gen. Dietrich von Choltitz. Choltitz ended up during the war being a specialist at one thing: burning everything to the ground when the Germans retreated so that there would be nothing left. He could be trusted.

It might have happened that way too, had it not been for several coincidences. When Choltitz got his assignment in Berlin, he couldn't help but notice that Hitler seemed unhinged. On the way back to Paris, he ran into an old friend in the upper ranks. His friend told them that Hitler had decided to start using officer's families as hostages. If the officers didn't fight as they should, the police and Germans back home would torture and kill the ones they loved. "I guess we've gone back to the Middle Ages" he told his friend.

It was obviously all coming apart.

Fighting started in Paris without anybody specifically starting it. As the allies got nearer, everybody knew it was going to get ugly. German SS troops were busy setting explosive charges on all of the major civic hubs.

In the middle of it all, as Choltitz's boss wired that it was time to blow it all, the mayor of Paris visited him. They walked out on his balcony, observing a young girl on a bicycle and more of the beauty of Paris. The mayor made his case.

‘Often it is given a general to destroy, rarely to preserve. Imagine that one day it may be given you to stand on this balcony again, as a tourist, to look once more on these monuments to our joys, to our sufferings, and be able to say, ‘One day I could have destroyed this, and I preserved it as a gift to humanity.’ General, is not that worth all a conqueror’s glory?’ Choltitz looked silently to his left at the Louvre and to his right at the Place de la Concorde and replied: ‘You are a good advocate for Paris, Monsieur Tattinger. You have done your duty well. Likewise I, as a German general, must do mine.’

But he did not. In the end, Choltitz left the city intact. As time approached, the German High Command pulled his troops instead of sending reinforcements, they retreated in front of the advancing allies. He relized that he wasn't there to defend anything. They just wanted him to destroy the City of Light. He decided he wouldn't do it.

The story doesn't end there. The allies came in and de Galle managed to save his country from communism. It was tough, chaotic, and very much all up in the air right until huge allied forces entered the heart of the city, causing a joyous celebration.

It is remembered.

It was 76 years ago today.