Figure 1.--A month after the Germans launched thie Western Offensive, German soldiers entered Paris and paraded down the Champs-Élysées (June 14, 1940). Source: Bndesarchiv.

Hitler talking to Albert Speer while touring Paris told hin, "It was the dream of my life to be permitted to see Paris. I can not say how happy I am to have that dream fulfilled today." The event was significant in part Hitler now thought he had won the War. He was elated of course not by the beauty of the French capital, but because he now controlled it and with France most of Europe.

-- NAZI Führer Adolf Hitler (June 23, 1940)

For 4 bloody years the Germans battered at the gates of Paris during World War I (1914-18). The whole purpose of the Scliffen Plan was to take Paris in a few weeks and force the French to come to terms. In the first month of the War they came tantalizing lose, reaching the Marne. Here they were only 30 miles from the French capital. The Kaiser and German generals thought it would be a repeat of the successful Franco-Prussian War (1870-71). But it was not to be. The French Army held -- the Miracle on the Marne. Some 1.8 million German military deaths were recorded during the War, the largest number of any of the combatants in that sea of blood and carnage. And then then Adolf Hitler's and his NAZI hordes enter Paris after only a a month of fighting and relatively light casualties. As the Germans approached, French premier Paul Reynaud broadcast an appeal for all free men to come to the aid of France. No aid came, but in Americva the shock led to mjor chbhes in public opinion and defense policy. The French commander of Paris declared Paris an 'open city'. French troops withdrew to avoid a pointless battle and total destruction of the city. They attempted to form a new line of defense south of the city. The Wehrmacht entered Paris without resistance (June 14). The Germans staged a triumphal parade up the Champs Elysees. One author writes, "Like a grotesque, endless assembly belt, the procession of lead collared vehicles, with their fresh blond, silent robots sitting stiffly four abreast, poured through the empty streets of Paris on this, its blackest day.".... Here and there knots of people stood and watched in what one man described as 'the silence of death'. The women wept, the men were grim; all were stupefied by the freshness, the youth, the discipline of the German troops, the trim spick and span armour, so smart it was almost as though there had been no war, that this was just another military parade." 【Barber, pp. 156-157.】 A day after France signed the Armistice (June 22, 1940). the triumphant Führer visited Paris in the early morning, around 5:00 AM. The city was largely asleep. He departed before sunrise had fully broken over the Seine, visiting carefully selected sites--including a long pause at Emperor Napoleon's tomb. The event was significant in part Hitler thought he had won the War. Up until this point, Hitler had played a weak hand masterfully. But beginning with the astonishing sucess Great Western Offensive, he began to make catastrophic mistakes. He began to think that it was his brilliance and not the work of competent military commanders. He began to question his generals -- beginning with ignoring their pleas and pausing the Panzers just 15 miles outside Dunkirk (May 24). Despite Goebbels propaganda, the German people recalling the gorroirs ofWorlkdWarI had not been entusiastic about the new War (September 1939). But the stunning news of the anazingy victory in France just oned week into the campagn, won them over cimpletely. And they would be his to the bitter end.

Sources

Barber, Noel. The Week France Fell (Stein and Day: New York, 1976), 321p.

Created: 2:32 PM 8/13/2026
Last updated: 2:32 PM 8/13/2026