Paris Between the Two World Wars (1914-1945)

On June 28, 1914, the Austro-Hungarian heir to the throne and his wife were shot dead in Sarajevo. As a result, Europe quickly slid into a world war, due to a chain of alliances that forced every major power to come to its ally’s aid. France, allied with Russia and Britain, found itself facing Germany, which rushed to the aid of its ally Austria-Hungary. Sounds complicated? Maybe this song will help you understand:

With the outbreak of the war, Germany invaded Belgium and continued its sweeping maneuver southward. The French and British armies were caught off guard, and the German army got very close to Paris, in what looked like a replay of the 1870 war. But then General Joseph Gallieni (1849-1916), the military governor of Paris, mobilized a significant military force, and thanks to the taxi drivers of the City of Light, managed to rush the soldiers to the front at the Marne River. This maneuver, known as the “Miracle of the Marne,” allowed the French army to attack the German flank and push the enemy back from Paris (the taxi owners, by the way, had no qualms about charging the soldiers full fare).

The result of the Battle of the Marne was that both sides dug in along a front line stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Swiss border, turning the war from a war of movement into a static war of trenches. Over the next four years, France paid a terrible price in blood, losing millions of soldiers and civilians, including prominent intellectuals such as the writer Charles Péguy (1873–1914) and the poet Guillaume Apollinaire (1880–1918), who was badly wounded in battle and died of the Spanish flu on the last day of the war.

Paris itself was barely touched for most of the war, since the fighting took place far away. But in early 1918, the Germans launched a spring offensive, and their long-range guns (the “Paris Gun”) began shelling the city. The result was hundreds killed and damage to several buildings. The most famous incident was a shell hitting the Église Saint-Gervais during Good Friday prayers, an event that killed dozens of worshippers and destroyed the church’s roof.

But none of this helped the Germans. The entry of the United States into the war tipped the scales, and within a few months the German armies were forced to retreat and finally seek an armistice, which took effect on November 11, 1918, at 11:00 a.m.

Paris Between the Two World Wars (1918-1939): The “Crazy Years”

The period between the two world wars was known in Paris, quite rightly, as the “happy years” or the “crazy years” (Les Années folles). After four years of war and grief, there was a strong need in the city to return to joy. Parisians were joined by many Americans, who had arrived in Europe during the war and decided to stay in Paris, thanks to the strong dollar that let them live in the city at a high standard of living and a low cost.

The most famous example is the writer Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), who spent his best years in Paris and described them in his book “A Moveable Feast.” Paris attracted Americans not only for its low cost and joie de vivre, but also for its liberal spirit. As a result, many African Americans, who suffered from racism in the United States, settled there and brought jazz music with them. The new music became an instant hit, and to this day you can find excellent jazz and blues clubs in the city.

Generally speaking, during this period the Left Bank, and especially the Montparnasse neighborhood, became the center of Parisian bohemian life. Artists and writers gathered in the neighborhood’s famous cafés, many of which, like Le Dôme, La Coupole and La Closerie des Lilas, are still around today.

But it’s important to remember that this same period, which saw such a significant cultural flowering, was also marked by deep political polarization, which was one of the factors behind the collapse of France in World War II. French society was divided between the far left and an equally extreme right. The left, which included socialists and communists, opposed capitalism, which they believed had caused the war and widespread poverty. They were joined by the Dadaists and later the Surrealists, who espoused pacifism and opposed the bourgeois way of life.

On the other side stood right-wing figures who saw the fascist movement rising in Italy as a model to follow, and who sought to protect France from the “red menace.” As a result, the political system suffered from chronic instability. In 1934, there was even a real fear of a fascist coup, similar to that of Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) “March on Rome.” In response, the socialists and communists united into a “Popular Front,” which won the elections and brought Léon Blum (1872–1950) to power.

Blum’s government did not last long, but it managed to bring about significant changes to French labor laws. Among other things, the work week was shortened, and workers gained, for the first time in French history, a paid annual vacation. This reform completely changed the face of tourism in France, and made mass tourism across the country possible.

World War II (1939-1944): An Indelible Stain on Paris and France

While the French continued to squabble among themselves, Nazi Germany kept growing stronger. In 1939, after annexing Austria and Czechoslovakia, Germany invaded Poland. As a result, France and Britain were forced to declare war on Germany.

The French mobilized for war without much enthusiasm, and dug in behind the “Maginot Line,” a massive chain of fortifications meant to protect France’s eastern border. But the Germans outsmarted the French, and in May 1940 invaded France through the Ardennes forest, bypassing the Maginot Line. The result was a collapse of morale that led to a swift military collapse. Within a few weeks, the Germans reached Paris.

The defeated army called for surrender. The government resigned, and in its place came Marshal Philippe Pétain (1856–1951), a hero of World War I. But despite the hopes placed in him, Pétain chose to surrender to the Nazis. As a result, Paris became part of the German-occupied zone, while southern France became a fascist puppet state under Pétain (“Vichy France”).

Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970), a relatively junior officer, refused to accept the surrender. He fled to London and founded “Free France,” an organization whose purpose was to continue the fight against the Germans. In practice, though, de Gaulle mostly busied himself with pestering Winston Churchill (1874–1965) and Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), and his military contribution to the liberation of France was negligible.

The Systematic Destruction of French Jewry

The years of occupation were among the hardest Paris ever knew. As the war dragged on, the Nazis tightened their grip on its residents. But while the French at large suffered mainly from shortages and humiliation, the Jews of Paris faced the threat of extermination.

In line with the “Final Solution,” an “Office for Jewish Affairs” was set up in Paris, located, ironically, on a quiet square near the Place des Victoires. In this office, the extermination of Paris’s Jews was planned down to the last detail.

In July 1942, French police raided the homes of Jews in the city, arrested thousands of them, including children, and held them at the cycling stadium known as the Vélodrome d’Hiver (or “Vel’ d’Hiv” for short), in the 15th arrondissement. Many died there in appalling sanitary conditions. Those who survived were sent to the Drancy internment camp, and from there to the extermination camps in Poland.

Today, you can see black memorial plaques on the walls of many schools, noting the number of Jewish students who studied there and were sent to their deaths. Make no mistake, this is not an initiative of the French government, which denied its responsibility for the Holocaust until President Jacques Chirac’s speech in 1995. It is the initiative of a private organization working to preserve the memory of the large Jewish community that once lived in Paris, of which only a few survived.

And what about the Resistance, you ask? Indeed, many French people joined the underground. The problem is that most of them did so only after the liberation.

Films About Paris Between and During the Two World Wars

Films About the Period

The first film, starring Audrey Tautou (born 1976), is called “A Very Long Engagement,” and it’s about a woman trying to find out what happened to her fiancé in the trench battles of World War I. It’s a wonderful film with a gripping plot and excellent acting (the director is Jean-Pierre Jeunet (born 1953), who also directed Amélie, and his distinctive visual style is evident here too).

The second film is Woody Allen’s timeless “Midnight in Paris,” part of which takes place in Paris during the “happy years” and introduces us to the community of American writers and artists who lived in the city at the time, led by Hemingway and Gertrude Stein.

The third film is “Paris 36” (Faubourg 36), a wonderful musical that depicts the Parisian chanson scene of the 1930s. Although the music and songs sound authentic to the period, they were all written especially for the film.

And finally, I can’t not recommend the film “Diplomacy” (2014), which depicts the efforts to prevent the destruction of Paris in the final days of the German occupation.

Want to Read More About the History of Paris?

Feel free to move on to the next chapter in the history of Paris series and learn about other periods in the history of the City of Light.

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