Humpday History Highlight
By Wyatt Earp | June 23, 2010
June 23, 1940 – Hitler Tours Paris
This despicable piece of human garbage took a tour of conquered Paris on this day in 1940. Sadly, the British were not able to plan a coordinated carpet bombing to welcome the fuhrer’s visit. Probably would have saved the world a lot of suffering.
Better yet: why, oh why, couldn’t there have been a Resistance sniper in the area?
In his first and only visit to Paris, Hitler made Napoleon’s tomb among the sites to see. “That was the greatest and finest moment of my life,” he said upon leaving. Comparisons between the Fuhrer and Napoleon have been made many times: They were both foreigners to the countries they ruled (Napoleon was Italian, Hitler was Austrian); both planned invasions of Russia while preparing invasions of England; both captured the Russian city of Vilna on June 24; both had photographic memories; both were under 5 feet 9 inches tall, among other coincidences. As a tribute to the French emperor, Hitler ordered that the remains of Napoleon’s son be moved from Vienna to lie beside his father.
But Hitler being Hitler, he came to do more than gawk at the tourist attractions. He ordered the destruction of two World War I monuments: one to General Charles Mangin, a French war hero, and one to Edith Cavell, a British nurse who was executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape German-occupied Brussels. The last thing Hitler wanted were such visible reminders of past German defeat.
That’s okay. We have plenty of reminders of Germany’s World War II defeat still standing today.
Topics: HHH | 4 Comments »
June 24th, 2010 at 4:16 am
Far as I’m concerned, this is just proof that the good guys CAN win…
He lost, he’s dead, and most of his legacy is dead too…
June 24th, 2010 at 8:54 am
Old NFO – Score another one for the good guys.
June 24th, 2010 at 10:33 am
Yeah, if only the French Resistance had a sniper in position that day.
The comparison to Napoleon makes me laugh every time. Whereas Napoleon actually had a natural talent for waging wars, Hitler was a buffoon who fancied himself a great military commander. At least Napoleon made it to Moscow!
June 24th, 2010 at 12:24 pm
Morgan – Hitler had fantastic generals, but his military acumen was lacking.