I have always enjoyed action and war movies. One historical thriller that made an impression during my youth was “The Train”, a 1964 film starring Burt Lancaster and French actress Jeanne Moreau. In the movie the French Resistance fight to stop a Nazi general from shipping stolen masterpieces of modern art in a train car from occupied France to Germany during the Second World War.
As wild as this may sound that movie, watched with my little brother before we were in high school, was a big reason why visiting the renovated and improved Musée de la Libération de Paris – musée-Général Leclerc – musée Jean Moulin (Liberation of Paris Museum) was on my list of places to see during my visit to the City of Light.
Paris, the French capital, fell to the Germans on June 14, 1940. The French Resistance played a critical role leading up to D-Day in June 1944 by supplying the Allies with vital intelligence reports, disrupting German supply and communication lines within France and hiding Allied airmen enemy soldiers. “The Train” was my first exposure to the French Resistance and that film – including the elegant Moreau – stuck in my mind.
The Musée de la Libération de Paris – Musée du Général Leclerc – Musée Jean Moulin was inaugurated on August 25, 2019, the 75th anniversary of the Liberation of Paris. The French Resistance orchestrated the city’s freedom from Nazi occupation from this location in 1944. At top: Celebrations took place across Paris following the liberation of the city. The picture is from August 1945 on Rue de Rivoli. (Photos courtesy of Paris Liberation Museum)
Officially opened in August 2019 to mark the 75th anniversary of the Liberation of Paris, the museum has been entirely restored and laid out to share three historic aspects of the Second World War: the heroic figures of Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque and Jean Moulin, and the liberation of the French capital. Moulin was a civil servant and resistance fighter who served as the first president of the National Council from May 1943 until his death at the hands of the Gestapo. Leclerc de Hauteclocque was a Free-France general.
Spoiler alert: The movie ends well and the heroes are able to keep the art created by greats like Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and Henri Matisse in France. In short, it was an entertaining historical thriller with a good, old-fashioned Hollywood ending.
But the movie left me with questions. What was the French Resistance? How in the world were a handful of poorly armed desperate people able to methodically get the best of a ruthless military superpower? What became of them after the war?
The French resisters had few weapons to fight the powerful Nazi army. This pistol, used by German soldiers, was recovered by the resistance and given to Henri Tanguy (Colonel Rol) around the time of the Liberation of Paris. (Rod Charles photo for VacayNetwork.com)
The Heroes Who Saved Paris
Liberation of Paris Museum seeks to address these questions and share stories of the people who worked at great risk to set the city free. It pays tribute to the men and women from all walks of life who opted for resistance. Some of those are names are remembered as being among the greatest contributors to the French Resistance — Colonel Rol-Tanguy, Jean Moulin, and Antoinette Sasse.
Charles de Gaulle was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in the Second World War. De Gaulle was elected president of France in 1958. (Rod Charles photo for VacayNetwork.com)
Liberation of Paris museum director Sylvie Zaidman says while a history museum is conceived and visited in the present tense, the museum strives to tell the story through the eyes of people who lived through it. The museum, she says, is about “giving today’s audience a grasp of a fundamental episode in French history as exemplified by two very different men, Jean Moulin and Philippe de Hauteclocque, later to become general Leclerc. Each following his own principles, Jean Moulin and Philippe de Hauteclocque set about defending their country. Their shared aim was the liberation of France, for which the Liberation of Paris was the most potent symbol.”
You will find all the interesting gadgets, trinkets, and stories that will awaken your inner OO7 at Liberation of Paris Museum. There is a jumpsuit for Special Operations Executive, a pistol that was taken from a German soldier, and a helmet with bullet holes in it.
The command post used during the Liberation by Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy is open to the public. (Photo courtesy of Libération de Paris)
One exquisite feature of the museum is a tunnel the civil defence shelter where Rol-Tanguy set up his headquarters during the decisive week of the Liberation. Rol-Tanguy is best known for leading the liberation from the interior before the arrival of Leclerc ‘s Second Armored Division. It was in the bunker, which remained abandoned and neglected for decades, where members of the French Resistance helped orchestrate the city’s release from the Nazi occupation in 1944.
Interesting gadgets and architecture aside, the Liberation of Paris museum above all is dedicated to telling stories. It takes a deep dive into the personal story of war and the human impact it had on the city. Millions suffered but it was the Jewish community that suffered the most. In the course of the Second World War, the Nazis murdered nearly six million European Jews in a genocide that is known as the Holocaust.
Jews in Paris were forced to wear yellow-star badges so that they could be easily identified. The Liberation of Paris Museum features several stories of the persecution of Jewish people, including Lipman Levinsohn (pictured). He was arrested in 1941 and deported the following year to Auschwitz to do forced labour. He died on November 9, 1942, a few weeks after his arrival. (Rod Charles photo for VacayNetwork.com)
A Poignant Museum in France
Following the occupation, the French Vichy Regime agreed to cooperate with the Germans in their policy of extermination. Nearly 30,000 Jews were deported from Paris to concentration camps. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum says in July 1942, the French police concentrated 13,000 Jews in the Vélodrome d’Hiver sports arena in south-central Paris. After being held there for days without food or water, these Jews were deported via Drancy to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
In the end we know that the French Resistance prevailed and Paris was saved from Nazi occupation. Sadly what also becomes agonizingly clear during my tour of Liberation of Paris Museum is that for thousands of people — including several members of the resistance — it wasn’t a happy ending.
. (Photo courtesy Julien Vidal / musée de la Libération de Paris)
The Origins of Modern-day’s Free Paris
The tour ends in an atrium on the main floor, splashed out in sunlight and the colors of France where the Liberation of Paris is celebrated with posters, news reels, and the jubilation of the people. Citizens are shown in jubilation as General Charles de Gaulle, head of the provisional government, made his famous march down the Champs-Elysées. After enduring so much loss, the people could finally breathe in the air of freedom.
The main floor of the museum is filled with pictures and videos of a liberated Paris. (Rod Charles photo for VacayNetwork.com)
Still, it wasn’t an easy time, and Liberation of Paris Museum also shares the stories of those who sided with the Nazis. For collaborators like Prime Minister Pierre Laval and Marshal Philippe Pétain justice was swift and fierce. Both men were sentenced to death, though Pétain’s life was spared because of poor health. A country ravaged by war needed to be rebuilt and a battered population had to find a way forward in the face of terrible loss. But the war was over, France had survived and the healing process began.
After stepping out of the Liberation of Paris Museum onto the busy street I took in the view and I felt like celebrating. What greeted my eye was a perfect slice of Parisian life and I couldn’t help feel overwhelmed and grateful to those brave fighters who “opted for resistance”. The sun was shining, parents walked with their children, couples sat on patios, bicycles seemed to be everywhere, and Paris was free. The only thing that could have possibly made the moment better was if the great Jeanne Moreau herself was sharing it with me.
Now that, mon amie, is what I would call a good, old-fashioned Hollywood ending.
MORE ABOUT LIBERATION OF PARIS MUSEUM
Address: 4 Av. du Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy, 75014 Paris (see map below)
Website: www.museeliberation-leclerc-moulin.paris.fr/
Hours: Daily, 10 a.m.–5:50 p.m.
Tourism Info: Visit the Atout-France website for more details.
