Dietrich von Choltitz
Commander of Gross Paris
General von Choltitz became the Commander of Gross Paris on 7 August. He was given sweeping powers by Hitler to defend the city, and destroy it if this was not possible.
Sending the Swedish Consul General in Paris through the German lines to ask the Allies to come quickly, von Choltitz managed to fend off the ever increasing imperatives from Hitler to leave only scorched earth behind. Brennt Paris? Hitler demanded of General Jodl on the 25th of August; Is Paris burning?
Choltitz was a professional officer in the German army from 1914. He served in the invasion of Poland in 1939, the invasion of France in 1940, and the siege of Sevastopol in 1941-42. After serving in 1943-44 as commander of a panzer (armoured) corps on the Russian front, he was transferred in June 1944 to France, where his corps was ordered to hold the Cotentin Peninsula after the Normandy Invasion. On August 7 Choltitz, having failed to stop the breakout of U.S. forces into Britanny, was appointed military commander of the French capital city of Paris, German control of which was being threatened by the approaching Allied armies. Choltitz's orders, originating with Adolf Hitler himself, were to destroy bridges, major buildings, and other key facilities in the city rather than let it fall into Allied hands undamaged. Recognizing the military futility of these orders, and repelled by their barbarity, Choltitz instead agreed to a truce with French Resistance forces in the city and handed over Paris unscathed to General Philippe Leclerc on August 25, 1944.
Choltitz was held in a prisoner-of-war camp in the United States until 1947, whereupon he returned to Germany. Snubbed by fellow former officers, he wrote a book, Brennt Paris? (1951), in which he defended his disobedience of a leader whom he felt had gone mad. His book was the principal source for a best-selling popularization, Is Paris Burning? (1965), by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre.
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http://www.gobelin.dk/gobelin/fransk...ep/midtaep.htm
On the Bayeux tapestry it is quite evident that it is William the Conquerer’s conquest of England at the battle of Hastings that is being depicted.
Von Choltitz had the Bayeux gobelin in Louvre at the time and Hitler wanted it in Berlin, I think. He had sent " museum SS" to collect it but Paris was taken before they could collect it with them. It has the invasion of England in it which probably fascinated him...
[ 23. January 2003, 01:02 PM: Message edited by: Kai-Petri ]