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The Collapse of the Third RepublicWhen Hitler invaded France on May 14, 1940, it took the German army only a month to reach Paris, invading through neutral Belgium around the Maginot Line where the French defenses were massed. Paris fell with virtually no resistance on June 14.
Much of the city's population fled, with 1.6 million of its 3.5 million people leaving between May and June 1940. The government agreed an armistice with the invaders and moved south to Vichy, while Paris remained - along with two thirds of France - under German occupation. Hitler himself arrived on June 23 to inspect his latest conquest and, in a famous piece of film footage, seemed to dance a triumphant jig below the Eiffel Tower (this effective piece of Allied propaganda was created by film maker John Grierson, who looped a few frames of Hitler stomping his foot once in delight, making the dictator appear to dance). The next four years saw an increasingly brutal occupation regime imposed on the city. On the surface, things continued much as before - the "City of Light" was an extremely popular assignment for German forces and a favourite destination for those with time off. Some Parisians welcomed the occupation forces and accepted their presence and their business. Most simply kept their heads down, enduring the rationing and in some cases exploiting the profitable opportunities that it brought. Some actively resisted, but faced the constant threat of torture and death at the hands of the Gestapo and the pro-Vichy Milice (militia). The persecution of Jews in Paris began within 48 hours of the city's fall, when they were required to register with police. On May 14, 1941, the Vichy police began deporting Parisian Jews, rounding them up at the Velodrome d'Hiver. A concentration camp was established in the Parisian suburb of Drancy to serve as a waystation en route to Auschwitz.
Some 70,000 people passed through the camp. Contrary to later assertions by postwar French governments, the camp was run by the French authorities on behalf of the Nazis until July 1943, and the roundups were orchestrated by the Vichy French police. This was only acknowledged by the French government in 1995 and memorialised only as recently as 2001.
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