Read a Moving Description of Parisian Resilience From 1944

2 minute read
Sep. 4, 1944
The Sept. 4, 1944, cover of TIMETIME
By Lily Rothman

It was “the news that made the whole free world catch its breath”: as the summer of 1944 approached a close, the Nazi-occupied city of Paris was liberated by Allied forces. The first American reporter to enter the city, per TIME’s account, was the magazine’s own chief war correspondent, Charles Christian Wertenbaker, who was traveling with LIFE photographer Robert Capa. They “drove into Paris with eyes that would not stay dry, and [were] no more ashamed of it than were the people who wept as they embraced us,” Wertenbaker wrote.

This week, as the whole free world once again attempts to catch its breath in the wake of Friday’s wave of terror in that same city, Wertenbaker’s first-hand report from that day is as moving as it was more than 70 years ago.

While reporting the step-by-step process of liberation, he also took the time to reflect on the resilience of the city. Even as the fires of war still smoldered, he could tell that the violence would not dim the legacy of a place that the magazine called “the city of all free mankind”:

De Gaulle is at the War Ministry, still nursing his sore throat. German prisoners are paraded through the streets, frightened but mostly well treated. Snipers are still shooting. The Chamber of Deputies on the Quai d’Orsay is still burning. But Paris is not badly damaged. When the last German is killed or captured, Paris will still be Europe’s most beautiful city and Paris will again be French.

The journalist and the photographer had entered the city too late to see the French flag and the flag of the nation’s American allies hoisted together over the Eiffel Tower, or to hear the people singing the national anthem in the streets, but he did see the faces of the citizens shortly after and felt that it was “perhaps enough for one day.”

The people of Paris were “proud, dignified and once more free”—and no violence on the doorsteps could change that.

Read the full story, here in the TIME Vault: Paris is Free – Merci! Merci! Merci!

LIFE at the Liberation of Paris: A Photographer’s Story

Parisians celebrate the liberation of Paris, August 1944
Not published in LIFE. Parisians celebrate the liberation of the City of Light, August 1944.Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Parisians fill the streets on August 25th, 1944, after occupying German forces surrender.
Parisians fill the streets on August 25th, 1944, after occupying German forces surrender. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
A young man watches liberation celebrations from atop a Parisian light pole in August 1944.
Not published in LIFE. A young man watches liberation celebrations from atop a light pole, Paris, August 1944.Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Thousands of Parisians — and untold numbers of refugees from other countries, trapped in Paris since the Germans captured the capital in 1940 — poured into the streets on August 25, 1944.
Not published in LIFE. Parisians — and untold numbers of refugees from other countries, trapped in Paris since the Germans captured the capital in 1940 — pour into the streets on August 25, 1944. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
A "Free French" soldier races to aid a Resistance fighter firing at a German sniper on Aug. 25, 1944.
A "Free French" soldier races to aid a Resistance fighter firing at a German sniper, Paris, August 1944. The sniper had opened fire during a tour of the city by Gen. Charles de Gaulle. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
A family seeks safety beside a Jeep as French Resistance fighters and Free French troops try to take out a German sniper during the Liberation of Paris on August 25, 1944.
A family seeks safety beside a Jeep as French Resistance fighters and Free French troops try to take out a German sniper during the Liberation of Paris in August 1944. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
General Charles de Gaulle, who led the French government-in-exile for four long, occasionally despairing, always defiant years, at the Arc de Triomphe during the Liberation of Paris on Aug. 25, 1944.
General Charles de Gaulle, who led the French government-in-exile for four years, at the Arc de Triomphe, Paris, Aug. 25, 1944. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Robert Capa and George Rodger cover the Paris Liberation
Allied troops and journalists — including photographers Robert Capa (on the back of a Jeep with a camera in front of his face) and George Rodger (with camera, wearing a beret) — in the streets of Paris during the city's liberation, August 1944.Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Thousands throng the Arc de Triomphe to celebrate the end of World War II in Europe, on May 8, 1945, in this famous Ralph Morse picture.
Thousands throng the Arc de Triomphe to celebrate the end of World War II in Europe, on May 8, 1945, in this famous Ralph Morse picture. Morse was back in the City of Light less than a year after chronicling Paris' liberation.Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

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Write to Lily Rothman at lily.rothman@time.com