Paris (AFP)
Christophe Castaner on Tuesday hailed the "sacrifice" of the Paris police officers who rose on August 19, 1944 against the German occupiers and led a "heroic struggle" for a week until the liberation of Paris 75 years ago.
Until August 26, 1944, "despite the gunfire, despite the tanks, the police kept without shudder" the walls of the Prefecture of police, taken over by the Germans, "became the seat of those who took their destiny in their hands ", said the Minister of the Interior at a ceremony held in the" Court of 19 August "of the PP.
That day, after a meeting between the three resistance movements within the police, nearly 3,000 plainclothes police officers, who had been on strike for four days, had gathered at dawn outside the City barracks and had taken possession of the building before hoisting a blue-white-red flag and singing a Marseillaise.
The collaborating prefect Amédée Bussière was arrested and replaced by Charles Luizet, Gaullist of the first hour, while Colonel Rol-Tanguy, head of the French Forces Interior (FFI), integrated the insurgents in his troops.
The German offensives to take back what had become one of the headquarters of the Parisian insurrection made 167 dead in the police ranks. One of the reception rooms of the police headquarters, called "Salle des 167", has been wearing since their memory.
© 2019 AFP