nPostednon August 25, 2015
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| U.S. soldiers during the Liberation of Paris |
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nWarsnare horrible, and World War II was certainly one of the most horriblenof wars! One of the places Hitler and the Nazis conquered during World War II wasnFrance and its capital city, Paris.
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nNazinGermany took over France in just six weeks ofnbattles. It was a stunning turn of events – because the French armynwas considered one of the best in all of Europe.
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nAfternthe Nazi takeover, almost two million French soldiers becamenprisoners of war who were sent to Germany to work to be imprisonednand assigned to dangerous or difficult work duty. Some French soldiersnescaped to Britain and other places and were able to become the FreenFrench Forces under Charles de Gaulle. n
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| The Nazis had controlled France for four long years! |
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nThencitizens of France had varied experiences while the Nazisnoccupied their nation. Some people joined the French Resistance,nsmall groups of armed men and women who helped Allied soldiers andnairmen escape the Nazis, who spied on the Nazis, who publishednunderground newspapers to communicate with one another and with thenAllied troops, and who took part in guerrilla warfare on Nazi troops.
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nAnd sometimes the members of the French Resistance attacked the last category of French people:
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nThenNazi collaborators!
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nThe Nazi collaborators were French people who who went along with the Nazis innorder to save their own skins. The Vichy government ruled thensouthern half of French, with fascist-like laws, and most Frenchncolonies, overseas, were also under Vichy control. Some of these collaborators did horrible things as they went along with the Nazis – the Vichy opened concentration camps in which they imprisoned and mistreated Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and others; they sent Jews off to German death camps; they participated in Gestapo raids.
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nDenGaulle, from his exile in Britain, tried to rally his fellow French citizens to join in resistingnthe Nazis; later he invaded Northern Africa and took back Algiers,nAlgeria, where he moved the base of the Free French Forces. At thatnpoint, members of the Resistance became the French Forces of thenInterior, and the two groups fighting the Nazis inside and outside ofnFrance’s borders grew from 100,000 to 400,000 to 1,200,000 soldiers!
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nFinally, on this date in 1944, French General Jacques Leclerc reentered Parisnand began to free French civilian prisoners. The Free French Forcesnstarted mopping up all the Germans who continued to fight, and somenof the French people, when they saw Nazis, attacked them – even thenNazis who had given up and were trudging off to become prisoners ofnwar!
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nFrenchncollaborators were often killed the minute they were captured. Other collaborators faced trials and death sentences or other, lesser, punishments. A few were found guilty of crimes against humanity.
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nDespite the high death count and the desire for revenge, the Liberation of Paris was a time of great joy!
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| The Free French Forces and the U.S. Army were both involved – and both joyfully greeted and celebrated – during the Liberation of Paris. |
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nAlsonon this date:
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nNationalnSecond-hand Wardrobe Day
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nAnniversarynof the Great Moon Hoax
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nComposernLeonard Bernstein’s birthday
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nConstitutionnDay in Paraguay
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nIndependencenDay in Uruguay
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nPlannahead:
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Checknout my Pinterest boards for:
Checknout my Pinterest boards for:
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nAugustn holidays
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nAugustn birthdays
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nHistoricaln anniversaries in August
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nAndnhere are my Pinterest boards for:
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nSeptembern holidays
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nSeptembern birthdays
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nHistoricaln anniversaries in September
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