Editing Liberation of Paris (section)

===Preceding events (15–19 August 1944)===
[[File:FFI voiture.jpg|thumb|A truck painted with the marks of the [[French Forces of the Interior|FFI]] and the V for Victory]]
On 15 August, in the northeastern suburb of [[Pantin]], 1,654 men (among them [[Allied airmen at Buchenwald concentration camp|168 captured Allied airmen]]), and 546 women, all political prisoners, were sent to the concentration camps of [[Buchenwald concentration camp|Buchenwald]] (men) and [[Ravensbrück concentration camp|Ravensbrück]] (women), on what was to be the last convoy to Germany. Pantin had been the area of Paris from which the Germans had entered the capital in June 1940.<ref name="pantin1">{{cite web |url=http://www.ville-pantin.fr/fileadmin/MEDIA/Histoire_de_Pantin/histoire.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2007-07-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090327005358/http://www.ville-pantin.fr/fileadmin/MEDIA/Histoire_de_Pantin/histoire.pdf |archive-date=27 March 2009 }} ([[Portable Document Format|PDF format]]). Pantin official website.</ref><ref name="pantin2">[https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20070710153209/http://www.ville-pantin.fr/fileadmin/MEDIA/Histoire_de_Pantin/Chrono.pdf] ([[Portable Document Format|PDF format]]). Pantin official website.</ref>

The same day, employees of the [[Paris Métro]], the [[French Gendarmerie|Gendarmerie]] and [[National Police (France)|Police]] went on strike; postal workers followed the next day. They were soon joined by workers across the city, which caused a [[general strike]] to break out on 18 August.

On 16 August, 35 young FFI members were betrayed by an agent of the [[Gestapo]]. They had gone to a secret meeting near the ''Grande Cascade'' in the [[Bois de Boulogne]] and were gunned down there.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150519103909/http://martyrs-bois-de-boulogne.blogspot.com/ "''Allocution du Président de la République lors de la cérémonie d'hommage aux martyrs du Bois de Boulogne''"]  (in French), President Nicolas Sarkozy, French Presidency official website, 16 May 2007.</ref>

On 17 August, concerned that the Germans were placing explosives at strategic points around the city, [[Pierre Taittinger]], the chairman of the municipal council, met [[Dietrich von Choltitz]], the military governor of Paris.<ref>[[Pierre Taittinger|Taittinger, Pierre]] (1946).  [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000KU7QIY/ ''... et Paris ne fut pas détruit'' (''... And Paris Was Not Destroyed'')] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221206131358/https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000KU7QIY/ |date=6 December 2022 }} (in French). L'Élan.</ref> When Choltitz told them that he intended to slow the Allied advance as much as possible, Taittinger and Swedish Consul [[Raoul Nordling]] attempted to persuade Choltitz not to destroy Paris.<ref name="arte1">[http://www.arte.tv/de/geschichte-gesellschaft/geschichte-am-mittwoch/NAV-1-cette-semaine/611420,CmC=611430.html ''Wird Paris vernichtet?'' (''Will Paris Be Destroyed?'')] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929090429/http://www.arte.tv/de/geschichte-gesellschaft/geschichte-am-mittwoch/NAV-1-cette-semaine/611420%2CCmC%3D611430.html |date=29 September 2007}} (in German), a documentary by Michael Busse and Maria-Rosa Bobbi, [[Arte]]/WDR/France 3/TSR. August 2004.</ref>