Paris Was Liberated From German Occupation
On this day · 25 August 1944
After four years under Nazi rule, the German garrison surrendered and Allied and French troops marched into a jubilant capital.
On 25 August 1944, Paris broke free after four years of German occupation. The end came fast once General Philippe Leclerc’s French 2nd Armored Division pushed into the city, backed by US forces and an armed Resistance that had risen in open insurrection days earlier.
German commander General Dietrich von Choltitz had been ordered by Hitler to leave Paris in ruins, but he ignored the command. By mid-afternoon he was a prisoner; at 3:00 p.m. he signed a formal surrender. Sporadic sniper fire and pockets of resistance carried fighting into 26 August.
The liberation gained momentum on the morning of August 25, and by day’s end the capital was free.
That same afternoon General Charles de Gaulle entered the city, and the next day led a triumphant procession down the Champs-Élysées to Notre-Dame. The liberation became one of the war’s defining images of restored national pride.
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