Paris, Open City

With the front broken on the Somme and the Aisne, the Germans marched on Paris. The capital, symbol of the nation, had millions of inhabitants and a priceless heritage. The government, which had left the city for Tours and then Bordeaux, and the military governor had to decide its fate.

To defend Paris street by street, as some demanded, would turn the city into a field of ruins and cost countless civilian lives, without reversing the course of the war. To declare it an "open city" was to abandon it without a fight in order to spare its inhabitants and its monuments, but it was to deliver the capital to the enemy and strike a blow to national morale.

The authorities could declare Paris an open city to avoid its destruction. To organise a symbolic or real defence, at the cost of blood and stone. Or to attempt a mass evacuation before the arrival of the Germans. Already, millions of Parisians and northern French had taken to the roads in the exodus. The choice committed the future of the city and the symbol it represented.