(Paris) Tributes, a parade, a mass… Paris celebrates the 80th on Sundaye anniversary of its liberation from the Nazi occupier, with an official ceremony in the presence of President Emmanuel Macron and Mayor Anne Hidalgo at the end of the afternoon.
On August 25, 1944, the bulk of the 2nd Armored Division (2e DB) commanded by General Leclerc entered the capital, after more than 1500 days of occupation and a crazy week of strikes, barricades and street fighting led by the Resistance.
Eighty years later, a “military and popular parade” will take one of the routes followed by the 2nd Regiment on Sunday afternoon.e DB to reach the center of Paris, from Porte d’Orléans to Place Denfert-Rochereau.
At the arrival of this parade, Emmanuel Macron will preside over an official ceremony. Personalities from the world of culture will be present, such as the American actress Jodie Foster. A flame of the Paralympic Games (August 28 — September 8) will be lit, before a demonstration of the Patrouille de France planes in the Parisian sky to close the festivities.
On Saturday, a tribute was paid to the 160 men of “la Nueve”, the 9e company of the Chad marching regiment, mostly Spanish republicans, the first to enter Paris on the evening of August 24.
PHOTO ARCHIVES AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Fighters of the FFI (French Forces of the Interior) escort German soldiers after their surrender and the capture of the Kommandantur, Place de l’Opéra in Paris, August 25, 1944.
The latter played an active role in the liberation of the capital within the “Dronne column”, the vanguard of the 2e DB, but it wasn’t until the 2000s that they were fully celebrated.
“These men whose talent, courage, strength, energy and inspiration we commemorate here today […] have marked European history, the history of our freedoms, this is also what this commemoration signifies,” stressed Anne Hidalgo, born in Spain and with dual French-Spanish nationality, during the ceremony.
The tribute took place in the presence of Bénédicte de Francqueville, the last surviving child of General Leclerc, and Claire Rol-Tanguy, daughter of Colonel Rol-Tanguy, regional commander of the French Forces of the Interior (FFI).
PHOTO ARCHIVES AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A jubilant crowd greets soldiers of the Allied troops and the French 2nd Armored Division (2nd DB) on the Place de la Concorde in Paris, August 26, 1944, during the parade celebrating the Liberation of Paris.
Fanfares, a concert, a screening of a commemorative film and a popular ball enlivened the forecourt of the town hall on Saturday evening, under the artistic direction of Mohamed El Khatib, with artists and spectators braving the bad weather.
At 9 p.m. (3 p.m. Eastern Time), the bells of Parisian Catholic churches rang out, as they had done on August 24, 1944, to greet the entry of the first soldiers of the 2e DB in the city.
The Archbishop of Paris, Mgr Laurent Ulrich, is to preside over a mass for the 80th anniversary of the Liberation on Sunday at 10 a.m. (4 a.m. Eastern time) at the Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois church, his “cathedral” while waiting to return to Notre-Dame.