Paris empties out — 10 June

Our Parisian family is a composite case, representative of the hundreds of thousands of households facing the same dilemma in June 1940. On 10 June, word spreads: the Aisne-Somme front has given way, and the government is leaving Paris for Tours, then Bordeaux. The capital understands it will not be defended.

Panic takes hold within hours. The Gare d'Austerlitz and the Gare de Lyon are stormed; SNCF trains leave packed, families pile into cars loaded with mattresses, others set out on foot or by bicycle. Rumour, the memory of the 1914 atrocities, and the stories from the exodus out of the North and Belgium fuel the fear.

For an ordinary family the decision is immediate and weighty: take the road south with no destination and no certainty of supplies, stay at home and bet that occupation will be bearable, or send only the children somewhere safe. No one yet knows how the occupier will behave, nor how long the absence will last.