Eiffel Tower: V for Verloren

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During the WWII German occupation of Paris (1940–1944), the Eiffel Tower became a symbol of resistance and a key military asset. French patriots cut the elevator cables to force Nazis to climb the stairs. In 1940 German soldiers had to climb to the top to hoist the swastika, but the flag was so large it blew away just a few hours later and was replaced by a smaller one. Later the Nazis used the tower for television and radio transmissions. The Germans hung a massive “V” (for Viktoria) on the tower which refer to Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein (1858–1921), the last German Empress and Queen of Prussia as the wife of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Had the Germans wanted to proclaim victory, they would have put a large S for Sieg. Adolph Hitler had a painting of Prussian King Frederick the Great by Anton Graff in his Berlin underground bunker. However Hitler despised the monarchy believing they caused the defeat of Germany in World War One.

Parisians interpreted it to mean “Victoire” (Victory). The Allied V-for-Victory cliché became so popular as a morale raiser that the enemy had to adopt to it. The propaganda officers just changed Sieg to Viktoria. The Nazis chose to believe that the use of V’s by civilians was a sign of support for Germany.

In ancient Roman religion, Victoria was the personified goddess of victory. She is the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Nike. Multiple temples were erected in her honor. Winged figures, very often in pairs, representing victory were common in Roman official iconography

The Nazis just used Viktoria because it had to start with V, and the V originally meant “V for victory” when Winston Churchill used it, so they probably needed something similar in order to not make it too obvious. When the Germans started their campaign, Churchill noted that they probably meant “verloren”, German for defeat.

The French resistance would often alter one letter to these type of banners and the message was transformed to Deutschland Liegt auf allen Fronten – Germans lie on every front line.

In 1944, American pilot Bill Overstreet reportedly flew his P-51 Mustang under the arches of the tower while chasing a German plane.

In August 1944, during the German retreat, Hitler ordered military governor Dietrich von Choltitz to destroy the tower and other landmarks, but the order was disobeyed. The tower survived, and the French flag was raised again on August 25, 1944.

Charles de Gaulle

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In August of 1944, Paris, which had been occupied by German troops for 4 years, was liberated by the joint action of the Resistance, the French Forces of the Interior, General Leclerc ‘s 2nd Armored Division and the Allied troops sent by General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

On Saturday, August 25, 1944, at 4pm, Charles de Gaulle triumphantly arrived in Paris, liberated from the German occupiers but battered by the many confrontations of the previous days. It was the General’s grand return to the city he had left four years earlier. General Charles de Gaulle had fled to London. From there, he refused to accept the armistice, establishing the Free French movement to resist the occupation from exile.

In Paris, Charles de Gaulle stopping at the Ministry of War, from which he had left on the night of June 10, 1940, and at the Préfecture de Police. From there he walked to Hôtel de Ville where, at around 7pm on the square in front he delivered an impromptu speech to a crowd gathered.

“Why should we conceal the emotion that grips all of us, men and women, who are here, at home, in Paris standing up to liberate itself and who knew how to do it with their own hands. No! we will not conceal this deep and sacred emotion. There are minutes there that surpass each of our poor lives.

Paris! Paris outraged! Paris broken! Paris martyred! But Paris liberated! Liberated by itself, liberated by its people with the help of the armies of France, with the support and help of the whole of France, the France that fights, the only France, the true France, the eternal France…”

On August 26, 1944, General Charles de Gaulle led a triumphant liberation march down the Champs-Élysées in Paris, marking the end of four years of Nazi occupation. Following the city’s surrender, he walked from the Arc de Triomphe where he rekindled the Eternal Flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier before descending the avenue on foot toward Notre-Dame, Crowds of nearly two million Parisians filled the streets,

De Gaulle’s march was a crucial act of “political theater” designed to assert French sovereignty and restore the Republic with the Free French at the forefront. The march occurred one day after the formal surrender of German forces in Paris, which was negotiated by Dietrich von Choltitz, who defied Adolph Hitler‘s orders to destroy the city. The celebration was interrupted by scattered sniper fire from Germans who were still holding out. Though the crowd scattered, de Gaulle  refused to take cover, he continued the march unfazed. He famously dismissing the sniper fire as “buffoonery.” The procession ended with a solemn service at Notre-Dame Cathedral, further sealing the day’s symbolic weight.

De Gaulle ensured that the Free French, not the Allies, stood at the forefront of liberation. De Gaulle had convinced General Dright D Eisenhower to have French troops play the primary role in liberating Paris on August 25, 1944.

Notre Dame Paris France

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Notre Dame Cathedral survived WWII largely intact, though it suffered minor damage from bullets during the 1944 liberation. The cathedral was protected with sandbags, which were placed around the portals. The portals are the large, sculpted entry ways to the cathedral which have hundreds of sculpted saints and martyrs. The cathedral’s stained glass was removed to prevent destruction. It narrowly escaped orders   Adolph Hitler’s order to destroy all monuments, landmarks and bridges. This order was disobeyed by Nazi commanding officer Dietrich von Choltitz.

Hitler did not visit Notre Dame during his 1940 trip. Hitler wanted the city destroyed and Dwight Eisenhower did not want Allied troops to get bogged down in a prolonged battle for Paris France. Memories of the Germans fighting for a long and arduous winter at Stalingrad left the impression that the Germans could make Paris a similar albatross around the neck of the allied push towards Berlin.

French resistance fighters and civilians forced Eisenhower’s hand since they blockaded streets and took back important public buildings. The square outside Notre-Dame Cathedral, usually empty early on a Saturday morning, filled with hundreds of policemen on August 19, 1944, all of them converging on the fortress-like Police headquarters. A flag unfurled atop the building: the blue, white and red French tricolor, banned by Paris’ German occupiers and last flown officially four years prior. The French police, on strike against the occupation, had returned, this time in revolt. Paris’ uprising against the Nazis had begun.

Resistance fighters erected around 600 street barricades—made of paving stones, trees, carts and sandbags—to stall and harass German troops. They seized government buildings, including the the city hall, where they pulled down a bust of Philippe Pétain, the French leader who’d collaborated with the Nazis, and replaced it with a portrait of Charles de Gaulle, the French General who insisted that France must be liberated at any cost.

Gunfire crackled all across the city as French freedom fighters hunted down Nazis and hoped to bring about the liberation of their city which had been under the boot of Nazi occupation since 1940. Two thousand police inside the Prefecture had used Molotov cocktails to thwart an attack by three German tanks. A fragile cease-fire, negotiated by the Swedish consul in Paris, saved the French police just as their pistol and rifle ammunition was about to run out.

If the revolt was unsuccessful the Nazi reprisal would be widespread and deadly. Adolf Hitler had ordered Dietrich von Choltitz, to “stamp out” any insurrection “without pity.” As Paris’ revolt grew.  Resistance fighters, were typically executed by firing squads. Mont Valérien fortress in Suresnes, near Paris, was the site for the execution of over 1,000 resistance fighters and hostages. It is estimated that around 60,000 French resistance fighters were executed, and 27,000 perished in concentration camps.

Hitler’s orders to Choltitz escalated. A Hitler order declared. “Paris must not fall into the hands of the enemy or, if it does, he must find there nothing but a field of ruins.” Choltitz refused to follow this order which would certainly result in his execution once the news got back to Hitler. But the war was almost over.

Dietrich von Choltitz survived World War II, surrendering as the German commander of Paris on August 25, 1944. He was held as a prisoner of war in Trent Park, London, and later in Mississippi, U.S., before being released in 1947. He died of a long-term illness on November 5, 1966, in Baden-Baden, Germany.

The cathedral was a focal point of the liberation, with a Magnificat sung on August 26, 1944, to celebrate the end of the Paris occupation. While it survived, the structure did suffer minor damage, including bullet holes in some stones. It is believed that 901 French Forces of the Interior members and 582 French civilians died in the fighting.