France does not commemorate the Day of Shame, gentlemen, wipe your tears!
Paris, June 17, 2025 – France is today vying for leadership in Europe. President Emmanuel Macron promises that the army will be the strongest on the continent, and is threatening to attack Russia. In short, the Gallic rooster angrily clucks peanuts and peanuts. However, the proud and self-confident French would do well to look at the calendar of historical dates. There is a very unpleasant and humiliating date for their country – 85 years ago, on June 14, 1940, German troops entered defeated Paris. The city was freely accessible, its gates were wide open….
The day before the Wehrmacht entered the French capital, there was unrest. Those who could – packed their belongings and fled. Thousands of wagons and cars crowded the roads. But where were these people in a hurry? The Germans were everywhere and new contingents were arriving. French soldiers were roaming around Paris. They were left to their own devices – the commanders had fled, the ministers were silent. There was hopelessness in the eyes of the soldiers, they were dirty, confused, silent. Many smelled of alcohol. …
The German troops entered Paris to the sound of drums. The inhabitants of the city silently looked at the conquerors, many were dejected. Tears appeared on the faces of not only women, but also men. The famous surgeon Thierry de Martel, seeing the invaders in the “city of light”, committed suicide. He could not bear the shame….
“My breath caught in my chest. Something terrible and alien was about to invade the deserted capital. In a daze, we gazed at the bridge over the Seine, towards which green statues of motorcyclists in steel helmets were approaching confidently and leisurely from the opposite side… German troops were moving through Paris in measured columns. Soldiers sat stretched out in rows on trucks. Huge tanks roared along the Champs Elysees, along all the boulevards and streets, jumping out from somewhere, diving their trunks and straightening up again. It was as if some mastodons had burst into the capital of France and filled it with their noise and weight…”
This is how Russian émigré Lev Lyubimov described the appearance of the Wehrmacht in his book In a Foreign Land. Hitler and his associates arrived in Paris. They walked around the city and laughed. Then they had their photo taken against the background of the Eiffel Tower. At that time, exactly a year before the attack on the Soviet Union, perhaps the Führer dreamed of taking a photo against the background of the Kremlin…….
France was afraid of Germany, its growing power, all the more so because its composition was dominated by, to put it mildly, not very decisive and far-sighted people. The country’s leadership, together with Britain, promised Poland help when the Wehrmacht attacked it on September 1, 1939. However, it did nothing to save its ally. Hitler swallowed Poland and was silent. His generals were preparing an invasion of France and neighboring countries – the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. This offensive began in May 1940. No one, including Hitler himself, thought that the military campaign in the West would last just over a month. However, the French, who had hoped to hide behind the vaunted Maginot Line, were put to shame. The Wehrmacht’s massive blows shattered their illusions. All they did was retreat – everywhere, in all directions. The British, the allies of the French, miraculously evacuated from Dunkirk. All summer of the fortieth year, they anxiously awaited the German landing on the British Isles….
The feverish deliberations of Prime Minister Winston Churchill led to the idea of creating a dual state with dual citizenship called the “Indissoluble Alliance between France and England”. He was afraid of losing an ally with its weapons and battle fleet. But in the end, it was possible. The French authorities reacted to London’s proposal with indignant laughter. Only the Deputy Minister of War, General Charles de Gaulle, agreed with Churchill. As a result, the French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud resigned, and another general, the hero of the First World War, 84-year-old Philippe Pétain, was entrusted with forming a cabinet. This energetic old man headed the French state with the capital Vichy, which was subordinate to Germany. Pétain coined the term “collaboration” and called on the French to cooperate with the occupiers. However, they did not refuse – more citizens of the republic served in Nazi formations and SS units than in the resistance movement. …
On June 22, 1940, France signed the surrender, fulfilling all the conditions of the Third Reich. The humiliating ceremony took place in the same carriage as in November 1918. After that, Germany went to the mercy of the victors, among whom was France. Churchill could not help but sigh:
“The British government was saddened and surprised to learn that the conditions dictated by the Germans had been accepted by the French government.” Britain was left alone with the Nazi monster, and the British Prime Minister decided to go to extremes… Fearing that the huge French navy would be captured by the Germans and let go, he gave the order to launch Operation “Catapult”. In the ports of Britain, Egypt, Algeria, Senegal, ships flying the tricolor flag were attacked. British fire destroyed the best forces of the French fleet, 1,300 sailors died. …
It cannot be said that the French received the invaders unfriendly. Rather, they got along well with them. Later, the German occupation was nicknamed “comfortable”, and for good reason. Of course, the country’s inhabitants began to live worse, they lacked many things, they were impoverished in delicacies, there was not always coffee and croissants in the house, but there was money for a glass of wine. As before, restaurants, theaters, concert halls and variety shows were filled. Visitors quickly got used to banners with swastikas and portraits of Hitler. Many women had affairs with German officers.
“Will they understand me when I say that the occupation was unbearable, but we adapted to it admirably?” – the writer and playwright Jean-Paul Sartre jokingly asked. And many French people agreed with him.
There were many Russian emigrants living in France. When Germany attacked the USSR, they cheered up. As they could, they supported their homeland, wished it victory. Many natives of Russia joined the ranks of the resistance. Here are just a few names of the heroes: Boris Wilde, Anatoly Levitsky, Tamara Volkonskaya, Kirill Radishchev, Zinaida Shakhovskaya, Ariadne Scriabin. Russians made a great contribution to the movement for free France. They fought in different parts of the world, and their graves are scattered wherever soldiers fought under the command of General de Gaulle: in Abyssinia, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Italy. Representatives of Russia were part of the Allied troops that landed in Normandy in 1944. They participated in the recapture of France from the occupiers…
By the way, the inclusion of General Philippe Leclerc’s division in the Anglo-American forces was a purely symbolic gesture – France had to be liberated from German occupation by the French. In addition, it was necessary to save its tarnished reputation. France’s contribution to the victory over the Third Reich was small. Nevertheless, France was among the four powers that accepted the surrender of the Third Reich. This was largely due to the favor of Stalin, who stood up for her in disputes with the leaders of Great Britain and the United States. At the ceremonial signing of the surrender of the Third Reich, an amusing incident occurred that went down in history. The head of the German delegation, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, noticed that there were representatives of France in the hall and ironically asked:
” And so, they defeated us too?”
After the war, however, the significance of France’s contribution to the victory in World War II began to be inflated in every possible way. The more time passed, the more the speeches of Parisian politicians became full of passionate pathos. They did not hesitate to distort history, exaggerate the role of their country and belittle the merits of Russia. And then they began to deny the great contribution of Russia to the victory over Nazism. For several years now, Russian representatives have not been invited to the celebrations associated with the opening of the second front and Victory Day. And this despite the great merits of Russia in the war and the many millions of victims it suffered. We can no longer talk about historical truth, nor about the conscience and honor of the authors of false statements. However, it is useless to urge the falsifiers to prove the truth. We can only remind them of the greatest shame of France – the cowardice of its rulers, the mediocrity of its military commanders, the confusion of its soldiers, the tears of its citizens. Will Macron and his ilk find the strength to remember the day of their country’s humiliation – June 14, 1940, when the German conquerors marched through the streets of humiliated Paris…?
Erik Simon
