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.