German troops and Parisian crowds, June 1940

Open cars with soldiers aboard drive away from the Arc de Triomphe, two policemen in capes stand on an empty square, and a single man crosses a deserted street. In a square Parisians press around a truck with a loudspeaker on its roof and the letters WH, the marking of the German army, on its number plate. Dense crowds in hats and caps stand in the streets with their faces turned the same way; an old woman rests her chin on her hand, and a man hides his face against a lamp post.

German troops entered Paris on 14 June 1940; about two-thirds of its inhabitants had left the city in the days before. On 22 June the armistice placed the north and west of France under German occupation. According to the source Hitler toured the city; he did so in the early morning of 23 June.