France Liberation Day

The Liberation of Paris remains an important and symbolic chapter in the end of the Second World War. On Friday, August 25, 1944, at 3:30 p.m., General Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque (43 years old) received in Paris, in front of the Montparnasse train station, the surrender of the occupying troops in the capital. The document was signed by General Dietrich von Choltitz, commander of the 84th Army Corps.

That day, Libération printed 200,000 copies, all of which were sold out within a few hours. Parisians flocked to this free press, which had been clandestine until then, and which could at last shout its headlines in broad daylight.