STORY: :: Paralympic flame relay ends at commemorative ceremony in Paris
80 years since the city's liberation from the Nazis during World War II
:: Paris, France
:: August 25, 2024
:: Emmanuel Macron, French President:
“Paris was broken, but not completely. Because since June 18, 1940, many Parisians, hidden in cellars or locked in their living rooms, have kept their ears glued to the TSF in order to hear the great voice of Free France on the airwaves of Radio London, despite the interference from the Germans…
“Eighty years later, in our summer of flames and joy, this summer marked by the funeral echoes of the war in Europe, this summer in which, for other reasons, attention is focused on Paris, capital of the universal and of Olympism, and of the Paralympic Games in a few days. We remember those who came before us.”
On the morning of 25 August 1944, General Philippe François Marie Leclerc's tanks entered Paris from the south and west. In the afternoon, for the first time in four years, the French flag flew on the Eiffel Tower instead of a swastika.
The Olympic flame relay, ahead of the start of the Paralympic Games in Paris on August 28, made a stop at the anniversary ceremony as a tribute, after which the flame continued its journey in the Paris region.
