The Liberation of Paris

There are many events that truly altered and changed the entire trajectory of hundreds of thousands of people's lives. Every five years, we mark the rounded anniversaries of the Armistice, VE Day, D-Day, and the Liberation of Paris. While the clean numbers on the 5s and 10s look good, we should be reminded of many things every single year.

At the end of August 1944, the Parisians had had enough, and after four years of occupation, they were going to take matters into their own hands. 

It all began in the most French way possible: strikes. On August 10, 1944, the SNCF metro and train workers went on strike. The trains had been an integral part of the Nazi looting of art, furniture, and the deportation of French citizens. The resistance frequently blew up train tracks and disrupted the lines as often as possible over the four years of occupation. 

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Bonjour, bonjour, and welcome to another episode of Paris in Blue, Blonde, Rouge with me, Claudine Hemingway. And I am giving you an episode today that I've been trying to do for three years. And every August I would try to do this, but our recording times would never sync up the podcast I used to do. And so it would always have to be done in like September and October or October. And I didn't really want to talk about the liberation of Paris. So now I could bring it to you. And I'm bringing it to you on the actual day that they celebrate the Liberation of Paris, August 25th, 1944. So this is a pretty amazing time. And what's interesting is that it, you know, they always are, you know, marking the big things. But as I'm going to tell you, I think there's sometimes we should remember about all every single year for some of these things. I mean, we don't just celebrate our birthdays every fives or tens, right? So we're going to jump right into it. It is a it is dark. It is very early in the morning. There is rain outside, which, you know, we've had a little rain lately, but not a lot. And it's been great. It's actually been kind of cold in the morning. So after all of our heat waves, but there's also been some thunder and lightning. So I had the window open a little bit, but then it just was getting too loud. So I'm hoping it's going to be gone so I could actually head up to the Liberation Museum this morning. And just the rain's okay, but I don't really want to walk outside with an umbrella in the uh lightning. So let's get into this amazing story. So there's many events that truly altered and changed the entire trajectory of hundreds of thousands of people's lives. And every five years we mark the rounded anniversaries of the armistice, the VE Day, D Day, and the Liberation of Paris. While the clean numbers are fives and tens are nice, we should remind it of many things every single year. At the end of August 1944, the Parisians had had enough, and after four years of occupation, they were going to take matters into their own hands. It all began in the most French way possible. Strikes. On August 10th, 1944, the SNCF Metro and train workers went on strike. The trains had been an integral part of the Nazi looting of art, furniture, and the deportation of French citizens. The resistance frequently blew up train tracks and disrupted the lines as often as possible over the four years of the occupation. After the SNCF began to strike, the Parisian police and the National Gendarmes followed on August 15th. The next day, La Poste and the Telegraph followed. Paris came to a grinding halt. Since June 6th in Operation Overload on the beaches of Normandy, there was a quiet rumble of hope that the end of the war was coming. On July 14, 1944, more than 100,000 people marched through Paris and the surrounding areas. For the first time in four years, the people marked the Fete Nationale together and in the public singing Le Marseillaise. The Germans were not giving up their hold and control. On August 16th, after leading resistance fighters into a false meetup in the Bois de Bologna, they executed all 35 members, sending a message. Although the writing was on the wall, they still managed to get the last train of deportees out of Drancy, included over 2,000 people. Everything changed on August 18th. Colonel Henri Roltanguy, head of the French Forces of the Interior, known as the FFI. With the backing of General Leclerc and General de Gaulle, Rotanguy released a plea to the French people of mobilize and revolt. In the dark of night, posters were hung on walls and published in newspapers, although the collaborationist papers declined to print them. The order called for all able-bodied men aged 18 to 50 to arm themselves by all means, in particular by recovering equipment from enemy soldiers. To attack the enemy wherever they are, in the streets or in the premises, their vehicles and field depots. They also needed to protect all public services from attacks such as water, gas, and electricity. The lack of artillery was a major concern within Paris. Roll Tonguy counted around 600 rifles up against more than 20,000 armed Germans. This wasn't going to stop the people. Barricades were built using anything they could find, cobblestones, the heavy iron tree grates, furniture, and even cars. On August 19th, at the Paris Prefecture, in the shadows of Notre Dame de Paris, 3,000 of the striking police dressed in plain clothes, stormed the prefecture and lost the battle to liberate the capital. The FFI encircled the prefecture with barricades built on the left and right bank, from the Square Viviani to the Fontaine Saint-Michel on the left bank and the Hotel de Ville in the Place de Chatelet on the right. That same day, Swedish Council General Roel Nordling paid a visit to General Dietrich von Kolchitz at the Hotel Maurice on the Rue de River Lee. Kolchitz had been appointed to the General of Paris by Hitler on August 7, 1944. Nordling was born in Paris in 1882 to a Swedish father and French mother. In 1905, he was named the Vice Consul of Sweden and later the Consul General in 1926. With a gift of diplomacy, he spoke for Sweden with the French. In the later years of World War II, Nordling was a trusted spokesperson, mediating between French and German, trying to urge Goring and Vichy leaders Marshal Batin to convince Hitler to retreat after D-Day and wasn't getting anywhere. On August 17th, the two would meet for the first time. Nordling was able to negotiate on behalf of the French Red Cross with Cholchitz for the release of all the prisoners in the surrounding prison. Just ten days after his arrival, he knew the German position was losing ground quickly. Tolchitz wanted to know what he would get in return. Nordling promised they would release all German prisoners, although Cholchitz had no idea it was just a handful of people. Nordling sent trusted AIDS to the prisons of Joncy, Compigny, and Roman Villers to order the release. He was too late at Compigny. The train had already left but would be intercepted in a few days. Nordling's effort gave 4,231 people their freedom from the Germans. On August 19th, in the hours after the FFI took control of the prefecture, the inevitable couldn't be avoided much longer. Georges Bidot and Alexandre Perodi, leaders of the National Council of the Resistance, wanted to negotiate a ceasefire with Choltits. The FFI were unwilling to deal and wanted to keep the fighting going. They had brought the Germans to their knees on their own before either army arrived. Nordling, within a few short days, had proven to be the Choltz whisperer and asked again to pull off the ultimate win. Representatives from all sides gathered at the Hotel de Ville in central Paris, recently restored to the French. Nordling negotiated between all the parties and by noon had an agreement. The ceasefire was to start on August 20th at 3 30 p.m. and was announced over the loudspeakers across Paris. Although many on both sides chose to ignore it and kept fighting. Roltony, leader of the FFI, said, as long as the Germans are in Paris, we will keep on fighting. As the uprising poured into the streets, German soldiers with white flags on their cars drove up to the barricades on the corner of Rue Vivioni opposite Notre Dame and began to shoot and kill anyone they came across. With the reports of arrests of Nazi soldiers on the horizon, they weren't going down without a fight. At the same time, German soldiers had been spending the last few weeks attaching explosives to the many monuments and all the bridges in central Paris. Three tons of explosives were brought to Notre Dame, two tons to Les An Belize, and another two at the Arc de Triomphe, all from the direct order of Hitler. Hitler gave the order to destroy Paris. Quote, Paris must not pass into the Allies' hands except as a field of ruins. General Charles de Gaulle returned to France on August 20th, landing in Cherbourg at 8 AM and heading straight to meet General Eisenhower. Ike wanted to avoid Paris as he didn't see it as a priority, and taking the Germans in the city would be a logistical nightmare. At Ike's headquarters in Tonier, just outside of Bayot, de Gaulle met with Ike and to try to convince him. General Leclerc arrived earlier and started the ball rolling, and Ecke would not budge. On August 21st, De Gaulle wrote up another plan and sent in an admired general to hand deliver the proposal. General Coning successfully led the campaign in Ber Hakim and was admired by Eisenhower. Over the next 24 hours, the news from Paris and the FFI captured and controlled many of the streets and former Nazi strongholds, as well as the likely surrender of Toltitz, convinced Ike they just might head to Paris after all. On August 22nd at 2 p.m., it was agreed between Ecke and de Gaulle that General Leclerc's 2nd Armored Division of the French Army, along with the American 4th Infantry, would make their way to Paris. Just after 6 a.m. before the sun rose on August 23rd, the 2nd Armored Division, which included more than 16,000 soldiers, set off from Rambouet, 48 kilometers southwest of Paris. With 200 tanks and 370 cannons towed to Paris, the drive took nearly a full day. The American forces of 14,000 soldiers, including 30 tanks and 350 cannons and one American rider. More on that in a minute. On august twenty fourth at 8 PM, before the French and Americans arrived at the Capitol, a group of Spanish fighters known as La Nueve reached the cobblestones first, a part of Leclerc's second armored division made up of 208 Spanish Republicans and French soldiers. By 9 22 PM the group arrived at the Hotel de Ville to great applause, led by Lieutenant Armando Granier, who would also be a part of the downfall of Choltitz the next day. It was on the twenty fourth that for the first time since the Warren Occupation, the bells of the churches of Paris began to ring. At ten PM Emmanuel, the largest and oldest bell of Notre Dame, rang out for the first time, followed by the bells of Saint Supice, Saint Germain depre, and on and on and on. People in the streets sang La Marciaise and screamed Vive La France, although the Germans and armed militia still stood their ground in Paris. Here's a little fun fact. The clocks that were on the outside of Notre Dame, until recently, now that they're working, they were set at ten PM until they were fixed. So for the last year, few years. As the French and American soldiers traveled to Paris, every town and road they passed through was aligned with thousands of thankful French citizens. Open jeeps are filled with bottles of wine, champagne, and beer, so much so that once they enter Paris, they were handing it out to anyone who approached. At 7 45 on the morning of August 25th, in southern Paris, the 2nd Armored Division arrived, coming through the Port d'Orleans and the Port de Gentil. In Paris, the FFI now numbered 20,000, as did the police and security forces. Later that evening, the British Army and the American Fourth Infantry arrived. The 17,000 German soldiers that remained were highly outnumbered. By August 25th, the tide had turned. The arrival of the French, British, and American armies were more of a parade than a way to bring the Germans to their knees. The FFI had already done that. At 1 PM, FFI soldiers and Henri Carcher of De Gaulle's army entered the Maurice on the Rue de Rively and demanded to see Choltitz. Threatened that he would be tried as a warm criminal, he was taken into custody. As a prefecture on the Ile de la Cite, where the FFI rose up just six days before, Choltitz signed his surrender at 2 45 PM. At 5 p.m. at the Guermont Parnasse, with General Leclerc and General de Gaulle, Choltitz ended the occupation by surrendering the German army. Choltitz would be sent to London with other high-ranking German officers, while many others were rounded up, arrested, and held outside in the Salon Care of the Louvre. At 7 30 PM in front of the Hotel de Ville, Charles de Gaulle would make a speech that would follow him the rest of his life and be immortalized in stone and bronze. Paris. Paris outraged. Paris broken, Paris martyred, but Paris liberated. That night, Paris was filled with the energy few had felt in over four years, but the war wasn't over, and there was still the last German holdouts and the militia that was growing. During the war, the militia known as the Milise and was created in 1943 and was made up of soldiers and devotees of the fascist Vichy regime. Given Carte Blanche to detain and deport Jews and others they felt were unworthy of remaining in France with the Nazi ideals. They were given incentives to join and appeal to angry men who also needed money. Led by the former French World War I war hero Joseph Dornon, who became an SS officer and pledged his allegiance to Hitler, he was told to quote, create special court martials to try on the spot. Persons caught in violent acts against the state. The law was without precedent in modern French legal history. By the end of the war, others joined in the militia, including Japanese, Americans, Germans, and many other angry young men and women who hid behind masks. Dernon was arrested in Italy by the British in July 1945 and later tried and executed for his collaboration. History. You just can't make this up. In the final days of the liberation, the militia joined the remaining Germans to a fight to the death. There was one man who took on the militia in Paris. Ernest Hemingway was staying in the city of Rambouay with this makeshift troop of men composed of American and FFI soldiers. As the day to the liberation of Paris got closer, he wanted to head back to the center of the action in celebration. A convoy of soldiers, including him, headed towards the city of light. Just after noon, Hemingway and his band of men crossed into Paris over the Seine on the Pont de Sevre. It was August 25th, 1944, and the drive to the city was filled with people standing along the road, cheering the soldiers as they passed, and his first stop was to see his dear friend Sylvia Beach. Living at 18 Rue de L'Orleon, Hemingway came barreling down the street, yelling out her name. Sylvia ran down the street, brought her dear friend upstairs to the fourth floor, and wondered what he could do for her. Sylvia and Adrienne Monier asked if he could remove the Germans and the militia still firing from the roofs of Audion. Hemiway returned to his liberated Mercedes, grabbed some men and guns, and returned to the roof of her building. Gunfire was heard for a few minutes, then total silence. Audion was liberated and the nightmare was over. The story of where he went next is a story many think they know. As the story goes, Hemiway wanted to be the first American to liberate the Ritz. He pushed his way to get an audience with General Leclerc to ask for men and weapons. Leclerc told him to buzz off, but he wasn't to be deterred. With his driver, Sergeant Red Pelkey and a handful of soldiers and journalists, they swung into the door of the Ritz. With machine guns in hands, he saw the manager caught OZL and asked him where the Germans were. Monsieur, they left long ago. He invited them in, but they had to leave the machine guns in the Mercedes. Hem and his men marched into the Ritz bar and instructed the barmen to make them Montgomery Martinis, which is seventeen parts gin to one part vermouth, which is how the British Marshal Montgomery liked to face his Germans, seventeen men to one German. Everyone, including the Ritz, say that Hemingway drank 51 of these alone. In fact, his entire party drank them together. The bar Hemingway was named in 1994 in the former ladies' bar space. The bar where he drank these martinis is now the Ritz Petisserie. When I give my Hemingway tours in Paris, it's the one fact that a lot of people bring up is the 51 martinis. And if just think about it, you literally would die, especially if it was 17 parts to one and you drank 51 of those. You would die. But even the Ritz website has it that he alone drank those. So can't always believe everything. A few years ago, I found a website dedicated to capturing the stories of those who lived through the World War II occupation in Paris in the small towns of France. As the greatest generation disappears, it's more important to inscribe these recollections before they are lost forever. One I uncovered I had never forgotten. Andre Auvenay was a 56-year-old lawyer for the SNCF and lived at Three Rue Palatine, across the street from the south side of the Eglise Saint-Epice. Auvenet kept a detailed account noting the days leading up to August 26th, especially in his Saint Germain de Pray neighborhood. Each morning he walked with his colleague Tricot down the Rue de Seine to the Pont des Arts. On August 19th, he noted that the air of Paris had changed. What had once been calm and quiet with people hiding in their homes now carried a bit of agitation. A young girl they passed in the street told him she just saw German soldiers machine gun down a crowd of people at the Rue de Bac. On August 20th, Auven saw posters calling for the French aged 18 to 50 to grab arms and join the fight to take back Paris. At the same time, another mass shooting occurred on the corner of Rue Vaugirard with the Germans on the roof of the Senate. The truce was in place, but they didn't care. The shots continued in front of Saint Germain des Pre up Rue Bonaparte to the Place Saint-Cise. On August 21st, the FFI began to outnumber the Germans, but the gunfire increased. People sheltered in the dark corners of their homes as the Germans and militia could be seen on the roofs running from building to building. On August 22nd, French tanks increased their presence on the Boulevard Saint Germain and Boulevard Saint Michel, where the barricades were built. On August twentieth, Auvenet noted roof shooters out our window for the fourth night. They were Germans dressed in civilian clothes with women and Asians of the Daran militia. The French papers began to publish again on this day, adding a return to normalcy. August twenty fourth, Auvenet and his wife have dinner. They began to hear cries and screaming in the street. This time it wasn't out of fear, a sound they hadn't heard in a very long time. People in droves were heading to the Hotel de Ville to see General Leclerc. At ten ten PM they heard the bells of Notre Dame followed by the bells of Saint Supice just out their window. August twenty fifth, the tanks of Leclerc roll through the Rue de Fort and Rue de Busy. A walk through the neighborhood that evening, Andre found the markings of the gunfire along the buildings on Rue Bonaparte, Rue de Flore, and one of the worst on the Rue Auguste Comte, along the walls of the Lycy Montagne. These remains all are there to this day in Paris, but especially in the fifth, sixth, and on the Isle de la Cite. On the very morning of August 26th, Andre and his family left at 3 AM to walk to the Avenue de Champs Elyse to join in the parade led by Charles de Gaulle. There isn't a day I walked through these streets, Auvenet mentioned, and I don't think about his words. On August 26th, Paris celebrated the final defeat of the Germans and the end of the occupation of their city. The end of World War II in Europe would eventually come on May 8, 1945, but on this August day, 86 years ago, they celebrated. At 3 p.m., de Gaulle arrived at the top of the Champs-Élysées. Laying a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier, he took a brief moment. Shortly after, alongside General Leclerc and the other members of the Free French in resistance, he took his tall 6'5 stature and strolled down the Champs-Elysée towards Notre Dame. Over two million people lined the avenue of the Place de la Concorde. The city may have been liberated, but the German snipers still fired down into the crowd, killing 582 people in the days of the liberation. Arriving in Notre Dame, de Gaulle carried on unfazed by the German gunfire. Inside the cathedral, the crowd sang to Dion, and as they hid under the hymnals, as Germans shot at them inside the church. Today at the edge of the Champs Elyse, a tall statue of de Gaulle is a perfect depiction of his wide gate looks ahead. Created by J. Cardot, it was inaugurated on November 9, 2000, the thirtieth anniversary of his death. Before his death, he expressed his wish that no monuments be dedicated to him. His son later agreed that they should have at least one marking the great man at a very heroic and monumental moment. On the side, emblazoned in bronze, are his words of August 24th. Paris. Paris outraged, Paris broken, Paris martyred, but Paris freed. Other just as important reminders are all over Paris. Over 2,000 plaques are scattered throughout Paris today, and everyone has a story. Below each plaque is a small ring on which the city places a bouquet each year on the anniversary of the liberation. Paris didn't waste any time installing these plaques, and they began to appear as soon as October 1944. They were placed on buildings and parks. Family members left flowers and inscribed the walls with memories of those they lost. They are one of my favorite things to come across, and I always stop, and I have hundreds of pictures of them on my phone. And just a few of them I wanted to share. There's one of Georges Bailey, who was a student at the age of 24, Michael Moucher, a member of the Saint Pour Pompiers, Jean-Charles Touchet, age 18, and Madeleine Brinet, a nurse, and so many all died for France on August 25th, 1944. When you come across these plaques, stop and take a minute and look at them. The pleasure of strolling the streets of Paris is partly due to their sacrifice. On the Rue de Seine on the wall of the Institut de France is a small niche with a plaque for Commander Louis Aily, killed on that spot on August 19th. The 55-year-old resistance fighters survived being captured by the Germans in World War I and fought against them. The niche also holds one of my favorite drawings of a guardian angel by Jean Charles de Castel Bajac. During World War II, many women stood up for the fight in France in any way they could, and for many years they were left off from the history pages. Marie Madeleine Faucade was born on November 8, 1909. She followed the path of most young girls. She attended the Couvent des Oiseaux, where all good girls went to become the perfect wife. At 18, she married Colonel Marik, and five children quickly followed. Being a wife and a mother was not all she had hoped and dreamed it would be, so she became a journalist at first for the Vichy papers. When she realized what was truly behind the far right movement, she moved into the resistance. In 1939, she met Georges Lousteau Lassault, a high-ranking official and friend of Charles de Gaulle, and became as chief of staff of the Alliance resistance. By 1940, they had to go underground. Marie would become the head of the Alliance and recruited over 1,500 people to serve the network as pilots, couriers, and radio operators. She was known as Hedgehog. She was fearless and faced death every day. When the Germans figured out who she was and found her in the chateau and arrived to arrest her, she convinced them that she needed to take a bath first. When the officers went outside to smoke, she slipped out the door and made her way to Lyon. Arrested in November of 1942, she was able to escape on the way to the Castor's prison thanks to a few compliant officers. With each attack on the Alliance, she would constantly rebuild the networks time after time. Highly decorated after the war, she would live a long life until 1989. Cecile Ro Tonguy was born on April 10th, 1919 in Rouen to activist parents. At the start of World War II, she was the godmother of war, essentially a pen pal to a young soldier named Henri Tonguy. The two finally met face to face and were married on April 19, 1939. In 1940, they moved to Paris and began working underground for the resistance. She strolled through checkpoints with a baby stroller, which could be filled with guns, money, and grenades. After changing her name and paper, she stayed one step ahead of the Germans. When the war ended and de Gaulle arrived in Paris and marched down the Champs Elysees, he held a reception in the Hotel de Ville. Cecile was the only woman in attendance, and that was only because of her husband. After World War II, she became a friend of the fighting Spanish, and then Francois Hollande wanted to award her for her bravery. She initially declined. Eventually decided she would accept it, but only on behalf of the women who had fought for the resistance. After the war, she and Henri continued their commitment to fighting fascism. With her daughter, she lay de combatants de l'Espagne Republique and lived until the age of a hundred and one. Simon Secoin could be the most recognized of the ladies of the Resistance. Her father worked in the Resistance and in the local government. She was just sixteen years old and dared to blow up bridges, lay traps, and damaged German-held villages. In Chart, she stole the bicycle, repainted it, and spent a year riding all over the Loire delivering messages. On August 23rd, 1944, she took part on the liberation of Chartres, and two days later arrived in Paris for the big fight, the liberation of Paris. Her most famous image was shot on the streets of Paris, a young girl standing against a wall holding a German machine gun taken from a soldier. Photographer Jacques Budien captured the moment on film and it was featured in Life magazine, making it the most famous image of the resistance. After the war, she became a nurse, had six children, and never married. When she was offered the Legion Monar Award, she initially refused but accepted in 2021. Simone lived to be 97 years old and died on February 21st, 2023. There's so many of these stories that are just amazing. And I could go on and on and on and would make this episode three hours long. But they're just, I I urge anybody when you come to Paris to just, when you're walking, stop and look at those signs. I had a a tour client yesterday and I was mentioning about this podcast that I was doing today, and she said she'd been to Paris a few times, but she was like, Oh, I'm not sure I know what you mean about the plaques. And then she said, Oh, are those the things on the wall? I was walking and there was there's all these plaques with names and they had flowers in it right in the Place de la Concorde. And I said, Yep, those are exactly them. So it is amazing, and maybe a lot of people don't know because they're also all written in French, but usually they'll, you know, they it's very specific what it has to say, you know, their name, the date, you know, and and a little bit about them. So, you know, if they were, you know, gunned down by the Germans or, you know, that they were in the resistance. Um, so it's pretty amazing, but there's more and more of them, and they still add them throughout the city, even though we're 86 years past World War II. But but there's a few other places in Paris that I urge you to visit if you're coming and you want to know more about this. They're not usually the things that people are doing on their first trip, unless you're really, you know, kind of a history, you know, nerd or military nerd, and I mean nerd in the most loving way possible, because I am probably the biggest one. But the Liberation Museum that's in the 15th, it's located there in the 15th, and it is the museum sits over the former headquarters of Rultongi that he had set up there at the beginning of the Liberation, and it's a free museum to go to, and it is amazing. It starts, it's all chronological. Just really embrace yourself because it is also very sad and difficult, but you get to the end of it, and there's recordings of the people on the Champs-Élysées and the parade, and you it's very happy as you get to the end of it. Like I said, it's a free museum. They do do special exhibits, those usually have a price. And if you want to go down below to look at the Ruletongy, there is a cost for that, and they don't do it. It's not open all day. They do at certain times that they take people down there. If you are mobile restricted at all, there is a bazillion steps to get up and down from there and no elevator. So, but it is fantastic to go see. Another fantastic place is, of course, the Musee de l'Army, which is Les Invalides. That museum is just incredible. It I just went again the other day. I go there probably every other month, but I went specifically to go through the World War II section. They have on the south side, they have World War I, World War II, and it's chronological. And you go you go through World War I first, of course, and then you go through the World War II part. And again, there's this dress that's in there that I would just die for that I have seen for eight, nine years that I remember the first time I saw it. And they used to sell a scarf of the same pattern, a silk scarf, and I kick myself that I never bought it. Um, but it is really fantastic, and there's even a little bit about my favorite lady, Rose Ballon, which I'll tell you more about soon if you don't know who she is. And there's also another museum there that actually I think a lot of people miss is the museum of the Order of the Liberation. The Order of the Liberation is the award given, and it is really fantastic. Sadly, you know, 98% of those awards were all given to men. There's only a handful of women that are that are there, and I was looking for every one of them. And even my girl Rose Vallon was not given that, which she should have, but it is really fantastic, and I forget when I went there the other day that I these places are really difficult for me because I kind of absorb all whatever that kind of what I'm looking at. And so when I see, you know, the the Order of the Liberation, the downstairs part of it, it's two floors, two hallways, and the downstairs is it's so great. They have, you know, Jean Moulin and all of these amazing figures that you know led the resistance, and a vast majority of them lost their lives. And then upstairs, it's about the camps, the deportation and the camps, and that just always makes me just sad and sick that this is what we do to people, and we are doing it again. Amazing that we could even be at a point in time that this is something that's happening. But it it's it's just uh it's really heavy, but I think it's also really, really, really important to see and witness. If you really want to put yourself through the ringer, you could go to the Shoah and also the deportation museum that's at the end of the It de la Cité, just right past Notre Dame, which might actually be closing. They're closing the garden as of yesterday. I need to check to see if the museum is still open, but that's another free museum, and it's beautiful, it is so beautifully done, and it is so amazing, and I could just about start crying talking about it, but it is just it's heavy, it's really, really, really heavy. But all of these things I think are so great and they're so important to see. I mentioned the Toltitz, he ended up writing a book, and he is not one to be taken as this hero as he liked to paint himself in his book that he wrote Is Paris Burning. But he, you know, thank goodness he didn't destroy Paris, but he did a lot of really horrible things before that. So, but there is a book, a movie in 1966 called Is Paris Burning? And it is fantastic. I looked everywhere, I cannot find it any place online, even where you could purchase it right now. They did a fantastic exhibit last year at the Liberation Museum about the movie, and it was really great, and it was really controversial at the time because people thought, oh, they're trying to push this, you know, this certain agenda and political stance by doing this when they were just actually making a movie about the historical content of that. But it included some actual footage of the streets of Paris. And you could find some things on YouTube. You could actually, I found quite a few different compilations of videos put together from that actual footage filmed in Paris. But one other fantastic thing to watch, if you haven't seen it, and it's a called A French Village, it's a French TV show from years ago, and it is on MHZ, MHZ Choice, which is kind of like an app that you could get through Apple TV or Amazon. Years ago it was on Netflix, and so it I'm sure it will make its way back there at some point or to Amazon Prime, but it is fantastic, and it is done in a takes place in a Rhone Alps town, a fictional town, and it starts basically at like the Nazis just took this town nearby, and it goes all the way through, all the seasons go all the way through the war and and then at the end of the war, and it just shows you what these people had to live through and the choices they had to make. And if you're coming to Paris and you want to do a liberation tour and walk through the city, and I'll show you many of these markings and places, make sure you reach out and book a tour. I've got quite a few of them coming up. So thank you so much for joining me on this really important day in history 86 years ago. And I can't wait to be back with you next week for another story that happened during World War II at one of my favorite places. So until then, Abiento.