France before the defeat, 1939–1940

French generals in greatcoats and kepis embroidered with oak leaves confer in a park and on a road lined with cars. In a crowded street a girl sits among bags, a mother presses her cheek to that of her small son, who has a paper label tied to his sleeve, and an older woman weeps beside a bus with children at its windows. Soldiers in crested helmets stand behind high walls of sandbags, lie in a covered post on a sloping street and guard a barrier across a boulevard.

Children were evacuated from Paris and other cities as early as September 1939. After the German breakthrough on the Meuse the French government replaced its commander-in-chief, and on 10 June 1940 it left Paris for the south. The capital was declared an open city and occupied without a fight on 14 June.