A large photograph of Resistance fighters aiming their weapons during the battles for the liberation of Paris from Nazi occupation, August 1944. On the barricade, the fighters hung images of Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring, and Heinrich Himmler, symbolically targeting the Nazi leadership. When the enemy attacked, they would be forced to “shoot their own leaders.”
Paris fell to the Nazis in 1940. Four years later, Parisians, led by the French Resistance, rose up against the German occupiers. The central uprising against Nazi control in Paris began on August 19, 1944, coordinated with the Free French Army, which arrived a few days later. More than 500 civilians and approximately 1,000 members of the French Forces of the Interior (FFI), which unified various resistance movements in the country, were killed during the week-long uprising.
Around 100 regular French soldiers from General Philippe Leclerc’s 2nd Free French Armored Division, who had fought their way to Paris from Normandy alongside the Allies, also lost their lives in the battles that led to the liberation of Paris.
Size: 24×18 cm. Condition: Good – very good.
