Hitler Tours Occupied Paris | June 28, 1940 | Colorized

On June 28, 1940, with Paris under German control, Adolf Hitler toured the city’s landmarks on his first and only visit to the French capital, stopping at Napoleon’s tomb and declaring the experience the high point of his life. Commentators often noted the many parallels drawn between Hitler and Napoleon: each ruled a country not his birthplace, each weighed an invasion of Russia while pressuring Britain, each entered Vilna on June 24, and both were short in stature and famed for keen recall. As a gesture toward the French emperor, Hitler even directed that Napoleon’s son be reinterred beside his father.

He did not come only to sightsee. Hitler ordered two World War I memorials removed, one honoring French general Charles Mangin and another honoring British nurse Edith Cavell, executed for aiding Allied escapes from Brussels, since he wanted no public reminders of German defeat. In the months that followed he rhapsodized about Paris and instructed his architect, Albert Speer, to push forward a grand building program in Berlin, meant to eclipse the French capital by sheer scale and splendor so that Paris would appear only a pale echo beside Germany’s remade metropolis.

Sources:
HISTORY.com Editors. “Hitler Takes a Tour of Paris.” History. A&E Television Networks. Originally published November 16, 2009; last updated May 27, 2025. Accessed October 22, 2025.
HISTORY
Steinz, Bjoern. “Berlin, Then and Now.” The Atlantic, May 9, 2015. Accessed October 22, 2025.

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