The Brits and the Franco-German Armistice Negotiations at Compiégne

Soldiers of Leibstandarte SS in occupied Paris after the victory in France

SS Volunteers enjoy their leave at Berlin's Strandbad Wannsee

Waffen-SS in Occupied Paris

On July 19 1940, Adolf Hitler tried once more for conciliatory negotiations with the British opponents. But Churchill remained resolute. The war moved into the next round. The Blitz, i.e. the air raids on London, began only after Britain had continuously bombarded German cities for three month. Pointless restraint was at an end. On July 21 1940, Hitler and his high command, waited to receive the French Peace Delegation in Compiégne. The negotiations took place and were sealed in the same railway salon-wagon as had been used on November 8 1918 for the Surrender Treaty of the German Empire. However, it was certainly no repeat performance of humiliation as had happened on that autumn day. Then, the German envoys were treated with abuse, and already as prisoners of war, by the French Marshal Ferdinand Foch. However, in July 1940, Germany's opponents were treated with military honor, the negotiations were handled correctly. For the Parisians, the occupation was a series of frustrations and shortages.  A curfew was in effect from nine in the evening until five in the morning; at night, the city went dark. Rationing of food, tobacco, coal and clothing was imposed from September 1940. Most French citizens fell firmly in neither of the two camps, collaborator or resistor, and instead sought simply to navigate through a changing society, and outlast the occupation in peace. Top image: men of SS-Regiment Leibstandarte SS at an outdoor café in occupied Paris in July 1940. The many relationships between German soldiers and French women produced tens of thousands of children born during the occupation. Photo taken by the war correspondent SS-Kriegsberichter Johannes Bergmann. Fair use. Middle image: two Waffen-SS volunteers enjoy their leave from France at Berlin's most popular beach on the Wannsee in late June 1940. Photo from the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Fair use. Bottom image: Waffen-SS men photographed in July 1940 at Palais de Chaillot in Paris with the Eiffel Tower in the background. Süddeutsche Zeitung.