“Where is the general?” Karcher demanded.
“He is upstairs,” replied a German officer raising his hands.
Von Choltitz later wrote, “Combat was raging, the enemy army mounted its assault on my Headquarters. … Colonel Jay told me the situation in an urgent manner. After a short discussion with my chief of staff, Colonel von Unger, I agreed to end the combat. Colonel Jay asked his orderly to find an enemy officer.”237
Von Choltitz was unimpressed by American uniform combined with French insignia, and described Karcher as “a haggard and excited looking civilian”; he frequently criticises those lacking “self-possession” in his memoirs. Behind von Choltitz stood Colonels Unger and Jay and Dr. Eckelmann.” The civil pointed his weapon at me and asked after several attempts, ‘Sprechen deutsch?’”
“Undoubtedly better than you!” von Choltitz replied.238
Von Choltitz then describes Commandant La Horie’s arrival, wearing a képi.
“Mon general, are you ready to cease combat?” asked La Horie in French.
“Yes, I am ready,” von Choltitz replied.
La Horie told von Choltitz to follow him out of the Meurice via a service staircase. “We arrived at my car which was parked not far away, but the key had been left behind. We continued on foot.”239
French accounts describe a more contemptuous exchange: “You refused the ultimatum which was sent to you this morning,” began La Horie. “You fought and now you’re beaten. There are pockets of resistance still holding out. I require that you give orders to all officers commanding these centres of resistance to cease fire.”
“Yes,” replied von Choltitz. “But I would wish my men to be treated as soldiers.”
“Follow me,” La Horie ordered.
At around 3pm La Horie led von Choltitz towards the staircase accessing the Rue du Mont-Thabor, a narrow back street servicing business premises along the Rue de Rivoli’s west end, where a Jeep waited, surrounded by a growing crowd. Meanwhile von Choltitz’s staff were gathered up by Karcher’s and Franjoux’s men.240
Under La Horie’s supervision von Choltitz was relatively safe, although someone deprived him of his valise which was wrenched open. He last saw his spare pair of general’s breeches, with their distinctive scarlet lampassen down the outside seams, being waved enthusiastically by a Paris crone. As von Choltitz’s staff were led out of the Meurice’s front entrance, Lieutenant von Arnim recognised immediately that Nazi atrocities could make them a target of vengeance. Moments later a rabid Frenchman stepped forward from the crowd and shot one of Arnim’s comrades dead.241
Anticipating problems, Billotte arrived behind the Hôtel Meurice with his White Scout Car, which was more suitable for transporting a high-profile prisoner. Despite the protective arm of a uniformed nurse, von Choltitz seemed relieved to be transferred to the larger vehicle.242
Billotte was fascinated by von Choltitz: “He was a large man, around fifty years old, with as sportive and soldierly a demeanour as one could have; although obviously suffering from the heat. … So this was the devil who had fought so vigourously in Normandy. Awkwardly he seated himself in one of the two seats in my Scout Car, facing the small map table, then, very politely, he asked if we could take his chief of staff with us. I agreed, though remarking that his colonel would have to sit on the floor under the table, which was the only place available and probably uncomfortable. Both accepted gratefully. It was in this chaotic fashion that we departed for the Préfecture, with von Choltitz’s feet and my own resting on the torso of his unhappy chief of staff.”
“I quite understand,” Billotte said to von Choltitz, “the reasons why you would have refused my ultimatum. I suppose that you were threatened by the SS. I imagine equally, from what I’ve heard, that your family in Baden-Baden is in a hostage situation and that they would be treated savagely by Hitler if you had not given combat. That said, I quite understand that you could only carry out a baroud d’honneur. On the other hand, and without yet knowing the number, I know I’ve lost too many of my men. We are therefore placed in the situation envisaged in the second part of my ultimatum, continuing combat until the total destruction of your forces. What can you propose to me to prevent my pursuing this course?”243
“Monsieur le Général,” began von Choltitz, red-faced and breathing deeply, “what you say to me is not fair. I have done a lot for Paris. If you knew the orders I had from the Führer …”
“Right,” replied Billotte brusquely. “Well, if you think you’ve done so much for Paris, you had best continue in that role and complete your good work by accepting the surrender conditions which will be imposed upon you and by collaborating—it is now your turn—with our officers in seeing that the remaining centres of resistance cease fire immediately. Those are the terms for avoiding further destruction and human losses for which, ultimately, you will be held responsible.”
Von Choltitz sat silently, his eyes betraying his discomfiture.
“Do you have any news,” continued Billotte, “of the two divisions that were being sent to you from the north?”
Von Choltitz remained silent.
“Choltitz had de la tradition,” Billotte wrote.244
REDUCED TO A CRAWL BY THE CROWD, Billotte’s Scout Car took its time reaching the Préfecture. Waiting with Leclerc was US General Raymond Barton, whose 4th Infantry Division was ranging freely over east central Paris, receiving the same rapturous welcome as the 2e DB. “You should be alone here in Paris,” Barton told Leclerc.245
Following a slow drive along the Rue de Rivoli during which von Choltitz saw his soldiers being disarmed and gathered into rows of prisoners, Billotte’s Scout Car crossed onto the Ile de la Cité and pulled into the Préfecture’s truck-choked courtyard. Billotte led his prisoner up the grand staircase to the billiard room where Leclerc waited impatiently.
“Le voila,” said Billotte, presenting von Choltitz.
Choltitz later wrote, “I found myself in a salle in front of a large number of officers.” Entering the billiard room with Billotte, von Choltitz would have looked across the table’s green baize to a large ornate window looking over the Boulevard du Palais. Standing between the chimney piece and the window were Guillebon, Girard and Lieutenant de Dampierre. Leclerc stood at the room’s north end behind a bureau table with Captain Betz to act as interpreter. As the meeting began Henri Rol-Tanguy and Maurice Kriegel-Valrimont, believing they should be included, opened the door.
“Pas de civils ici! ” shouted Leclerc.246
Kriegel-Valrimont pointed out his FFI armband.
“Some of them are members of the liberation committee,” remarked Girard. “They insist on being present.”
Chaban-Delmas and Luizet nodded their agreement.
“All right,” said Leclerc. “Let them stay.”247
Billotte wrote, “The surrender ceremony began; Choltitz comported himself with dignity, Leclerc with grandeur.”
Von Choltitz wrote, “A general came towards me and said with all the courtesy of a true soldier, ‘Sind Sie General von Choltitz? Ich bin General Leclerc.’” Then apparently Leclerc asked, “Why have you opposed un fin and not replied to my letter?” referring to Billotte’s proposal sent via Nordling and Bender during the morning. Von Choltitz does not report his reply.248 Other versions say that von Choltitz offered Leclerc his hand but that this was refused.
Leclerc bade von Choltitz sit before confronting him with the freshly typed surrender document.
“Lisez! ” Leclerc ordered Captain Betz.
Betz read the document aloud, first in French, then in German.
At this point, French versions describe von Choltitz becoming visibly uncomfortable, with laboured breathing. But his memoirs say, “We followed the paragraphs one after the other. Such a document was not, in my view, necessary. It was not as though there would be a capitulation before the end of combat; my headquarters had been taken by the enemy and I was a prisoner along with my staff. This verbiage changed nothing, nor
the real situation in so far as it affected myself and my aides. On the other hand the document did address those strongpoints still holding out.”249
Through Captain Betz, von Choltitz explained that, while he could order troops under his command to surrender, there were others either outside his command or who were uncontactable. Recognising these practical difficulties, Leclerc explained that his Gare Montparnasse CP was better equipped for communicating the surrender to all interested parties. Von Choltitz signed the surrender document.250
EVEN AS VON CHOLTITZ SIGNED, his garrison continued fighting in the roads around the Étoile. GT Langlade’s tanks and infantry left a trail of feldgrau-clad corpses and burning vehicles on elegant avenues. As 2/RMT’s 5th Company infiltrated deserted streets, reports arrived that the Germans in the Hôtel Majestic would continue fighting and that its Rue la Pérouse entrance was protected by a concrete pillbox.251
But from the ground floor, Lieutenant Holz heard that the Majestic’s defenders might surrender to someone of significant rank. Almost simultaneously Massu was approached by a German carrying a white flag from Rue la Pérouse. After reporting to Langlade’s CP—a former car showroom on the Avenue de la Grande Armée—Massu decided to approach the Majestic personally. Yet, and proving how disjointed the German command chain had become, as Massu approached the Majestic accompanied by Sergent-Chef Dannic, a sniper on the Majestic’s roof shot Dannic in the chest, killing him instantly. Demonstrating considerable cool, Massu continued, entering the Majestic from Rue la Pérouse, soon finding himself facing armed Germans in the east foyer. “Heraus! ” Massu yelled.
At first Massu faced some protests.
“Heraus! Schnell!” he insisted.
His confidence prevailed, and soon three hundred soldiers along with two colonels and fifty officers were herded towards the Étoile and handed over to Commandant Mirambeau to feed into the Allied POW system.252
Next, Lieutenant Sorret reported that 24 Avenue Kléber, premises of an insurance company called L’Abeile, was a nest of Waffen SS. Anxious to regroup his men around the Étoile, Massu sent Lieutenant Berne’s platoon to parley with them. Preceded by a white flag, Berne entered L’Abeile’s main hallway, quickly finding a Schmeisser’s barrel pressed to his chest.
“I am a regular army officer,” said Berne. “I would like to speak to your chef.”
An SS major approached.
“All resistance is futile,” said Berne. “In any case, you have one minute to surrender. Don’t waste time. I am giving you one minute. After that, I will attack.”
For a moment the SS men appeared truculent. Then their commander surrendered his pistol, followed by several others. His arms full of guns, Berne led a hundred and fifty Waffen SS out of 24 Avenue Kléber.
“You look like a Mexican pistolero,” joked Sorret.
“I would like to have seen how you handled these guignols all armed to the teeth,” replied Berne.253
Within minutes of knowing that the German strongholds around the Étoile had surrendered, the 16th Arrondissement’s inhabitants invaded the streets in a human wave. As disarmed Germans were gathered near the Arc de Triomphe, Parisians yelled abuse, and one woman even attempted to gouge out a German officer’s eyes with a knitting needle until Mirambeau’s men stopped her. Prisoners belched with fear while Parisians shrieked filth at them and FFIs shot at shadows on rooftops. Small wonder that one German prisoner, unbalanced by apprehension, pulled out a hidden phosphorous grenade and threw it at Mirambeau’s guards. Corporal Néri caught most of the flash, his uniform burning brightly until his comrades smothered the flames; one of his arms was subsequently amputated. Commandant Mirambeau was also wounded.254
IN MID-AFTERNOON, AFTER ROBERT MADY, Lieutenant Nouveau and Sergeant Marcel Bizien put France back in control of the Champs Élysées, David Bruce’s party parked their Jeeps on Avenue Foch and approached the Arc de Triomphe where six Great War veterans, one of whom was wheelchair bound, stood vigil around the Soldat Inconnu. Their officer permitted Bruce and Co. to visit the Arc’s roof where Bruce met the same firemen who had greeted Langlade earlier, all standing to attention. One of them gave Bruce his medal and saluted. After this surprising little ceremony Bruce savoured the view of a city he loved as much as any in America, and to which he would return as his country’s ambassador.255
Returning to their Jeeps they saw liberation’s grim reality: seven dead Germans lying in a heap. A gunfight between Langlade’s infantry and German personnel still inside the Gestapo building forced them to shelter behind a French tank, where an elegant Parisian invited them for champagne chez lui. This was Robert Lalou, who lived with his beautiful wife in a sumptuously decorated apartment nearby. To the music of gunfire they drank three bottles of champagne, while outside a retired French officer offered champagne to Hemingway’s irregulars. “We dallied there for a while and decided to push on,” wrote Bruce.256
Did Hemingway personally liberate the Travellers’ Club? “What actually happened,” wrote the author’s biographer, Carlos Baker, “was that Hemingway, Bruce and Pelkey, finding the Champs Élysées completely bare of traffic, drove at breakneck speed down the broad avenue and pulled up at the Club door. All the rooms were closed except the bar, where the Club president, an elderly Frenchman, was stationed with a number of the Old Guard. Since the Americans were the first outsiders to reach the Club, a testimonial bottle of champagne was quickly opened and toasts offered. As they drank, a sniper began to fire from an adjoining roof. Pelkey shouldered his rifle and made for the roof, but was balked in his attempt to deal with the sniper.”257
Bruce and Hemingway did not stay long at the Travellers’ Club and separated after briefly visiting the Café de la Paix. Among Hemingway’s first calls was Picasso’s home on the Rue des Grands Augustins. Picasso was still protecting Marie-Thérèse Walter and their daughter Maya on the Ile Saint-Louis, so Hemingway was greeted by the concièrge who, according to Françoise Gilot, was timid but not bashful, with an eye to the main chance. Since Picasso often shared his food with her, she asked Hemingway if he could leave a gift. Hemingway collected a wooden case of hand-grenades from his Jeep and plonked them down in her loge with a note saying “To Picasso from Hemingway!” When the concièrge discovered what the box contained she fled the building, refusing to return until Papa’s gift was removed.258
In her Rue de l’Odéon lodgings, Sylvia Beach, the American former owner of the bookshop Shakespeare and Company, was relieved when “a string of Jeeps came up the street”. Then she heard “a deep voice calling ‘Sylvia!’ Everyone in the street took up the cry ‘Sylvia!’ ‘It’s Hemingway!’ cried Adrienne. I flew downstairs. We met with a crash. He picked me up and swung me around and kissed me while people on the street and in the windows cheered.”259
Beach took Hemingway upstairs and gave him her last piece of soap to wash with. “He wanted to know if there was anything he could do for us. We asked him if he could do something about the Nazi snipers on the rooftops in our street, particularly on Adrienne’s rooftop. He got his company out of the Jeeps and took them up to the roof. We heard firing for the last time in the Rue de l’Odéon. Hemingway and his men came down again and rode off in their Jeeps—‘to liberate the cellar at the Ritz’.”260
Hemingway breezed through the Ritz’s Rue Cambon entrance, his gun flapping against his thigh, shouting “Raus” at various British people already there. Papa reportedly liberated the cellars and checked the roof for snipers, shooting down a clothesline. “It was breathtaking to see him behave as if the hotel was his home,” said Lucienne Elmiger. “He had presence,” she continued. “But no chic.”261
LECLERC LED VON CHOLTITZ FROM THE PRÉFECTURE, pausing briefly to congratulate Raymond Dronne for the previous evening. Billotte then told Dronne to organise security at the Hôtel de Ville for the important visitor due shortly.262
Von Choltitz mounted Leclerc’s Scout Car followed by Chaban-Delmas, Rol-Tanguy, Kriegel-Valrimont, Girard and Leclerc. Outsi
de the Préfecture and around the Pont Notre Dame, crowds were gathering, determined to yell at von Choltitz. But, elegantly waving his cane, Leclerc emphasised that his prisoner was subject to the rules of war. In the rear of the Scout Car, Henri Rol-Tanguy pondered the Insurrection’s extraordinary outcome as they drove through the screaming crowd. Gunfire from rooftops continued, though its targets were hard to guess.263
At the Gare Montparnasse, von Choltitz seemed to deteriorate. Stumbling out of the Scout Car, he wrapped his arm around the gun-rail and swung himself lumberingly to the ground, inadvertently catching his backside on Maurice Kriegel-Valrimont’s boot.264 The Préfecture proceedings struck Kriegel-Valrimont as lacking an important element: Rol-Tanguy’s signature on the surrender document. Valrimont raised this issue with Chaban-Delmas, who supported the idea.
“So long as everyone is happy,” said Leclerc, who had also registered von Choltitz’s discomfiture. Turning to Commandant Weil, Leclerc said, “You speak German. Take him for a walk.”
Ambling along the platform under the Gare Montparnasse’s enormous skylights, von Choltitz gaspingly asked Weil for water to wash down a pill. Weil worried that von Choltitz intended suicide, but it was merely a hypertension remedy. After swallowing the pill and gulping back the water, von Choltitz turned to Weil: “If I might give you some advice,” he said. “When you get into Germany and meet up with the Russians, don’t stop, march on to Moscow.”265
After rewording the surrender document to satisfy FFI sensibilities—Leclerc was more interested in post-war French unity than fussing over such details—Rol-Tanguy signed above Leclerc.266 During this second signing, von Choltitz heaved with pain and humiliation. Also to be signed were surrender orders to be taken by French and German officers to those German strongpoints still holding out. Before the 2e DB finished with Dietrich von Choltitz, Leclerc’s chief engineer asked whether Wehrmacht sappers had mined the city’s bridges. Von Choltitz assured him they had not, a fact confirmed by public works officials who checked the bridges twice every twenty-four hours.267 While most might regard this as further evidence of von Choltitz’s restraint, Maurice Kriegel-Valrimont later argued that, since von Choltitz lacked the means to destroy bridges and monuments, Paris owed him nothing.268 But, seeing von Choltitz in the flesh, Raymond Massiet asked why, even with the modest means at his disposal, he did so little to suppress the Insurrection.
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