Free Nazi Paris: The History of an Occupation, 1940-1944 by Allan Mitchell

P REFACE

    I t cannot be entirely coincidental that this study was researched and written during the American military engagement in Iraq. Even the most reclusive historian cannot ignore the daily association between newspaper headlines and scholarly pursuits. Surely all occupations of an invaded territory by a foreign power share some identifiable mutual characteristics, and the homilies to be drawn from a comparison of them soon become disarmingly simplistic: do not expect the conquered populace to throw flowers; beware of undue reliance on the local police; prepare to be blamed for absolutely everything that goes awry; and so forth.
    Yet I have kept clearly in view that Paris is not Baghdad, and certainly that the 1940s had little in common with the initial decade of the twenty-first century. The evidence has therefore in no way been trimmed to support easy—and often misleading—generalizations. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Unavoidably, nonetheless, the vocabulary necessary to describe or analyze events often has much the same resonance. Use of the designation “terrorists” to identify insurgents was just as common in the four years after 1940 as it would become over six decades later. And, yes, there were in both instances improvised explosive devices, political assassinations, and well-documented incidents of torture—all of which were alternatively justified or condemned in similar terms. Still, the striking differences between then and now, here and there, are profound. One can ignore them only at great peril of distortion. Perhaps what we need to do is found an Institute of Occupation Studies in the hope that our political and military leaders will thereby be encouraged to think twice before embarking on a foreign adventure.
    A number of colleagues and friends have offered me advice and encouragement along the way. I want to thank each of the following warmly for their help: Chantal Bamberger, Claude Blay, Karen Bowie, François Caron, Alfred Gottwaldt, Peter Hennock, François Jacquot, Larry Joseph, Joanne Karpinski, Shawn Kendrick, Annemarie Kleinert, Jürgen Kocka, Stefan Martens, Sylvia Roubaud, Tom Skidmore, and John Sweets. It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge here also the unflagging support of my indulgent editor, Marion Berghahn, head of what she likes to call my Hausverlag .

PART I
    T AKING O VER
    (June 1940–June 1941)

German troops entering Paris in June 1940

    A mobile unit, reaching Paris, pauses beneath the city's most famous monument

    In the shadow of Sacré Coeur, soldiers find something else to admire

    Under a huge “V” (for victoire ?) the banner reads: “Germany is everywhere victorious”

    The Paris Opéra decorated with swastika flags

    Making friends in front of the Moulin Rouge…

    …and on the Place de la Concorde

    Grusspflicht : a French policeman offers a passing German officer the “obligatory salute”

    German military personnel at a sidewalk cafe

    At the Occupation's outset, ice cream cones all around

    Fishermen of the world unite

    Frequenting bouquinistes on the banks of the Seine

    A German officer obligingly corrects the spelling of a sign: “The tip is not included”

PART II
    C RACKING D OWN
    (June 1941–November 1942)

Changing of the guard on the Rue de Rivoli

    A drum and bugle corps in the Avenue Kléber near the Hotel Majestic

    Café terraces are still packed—with German soldiers

    Street scene at the Place du Tertre on Montmartre

    German meat inspectors confer with French butchers

    A little black market operation on the street

    German officers in an open limousine leaving the Place Vendôme

    A first-class carriage in the Paris metro at rush hour

    German soldiers gain directions from a local policeman

    A daily parade passes in the center of Paris

    Damage caused by Allied bombing of the Renault factory on 4 April 1943

    A Franco-German funeral service for victims of the air raid

    A German memorial service in the