Langeron — Prefecture of Police, 14 June

Roger Langeron, Prefect of Police of Paris since 1934, is on the morning of 14 June the highest French civil authority still in the capital. The president of the Municipal Council has left the city, the government has fallen back to Bordeaux. Langeron has stayed, with some 28,000 policemen under his orders, the vast majority of whom have remained at their posts.

At 08:00 he receives General von Studnitz, commanding the occupying troops. The German asks him to maintain public order, organize supplies, enforce a curfew, post German notices at the district town halls, and not obstruct German services. In return, his police keep their weapons, the municipal administration goes on functioning, and the population is not in direct contact with the Wehrmacht.

Langeron's dilemma is that of every French civil servant in the summer of 1940: how far to cooperate with the occupier to prevent chaos, without becoming the instrument of his orders? He must answer von Studnitz on the spot.