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Highlights during WWII and Other Lesser Known Historical Facts

Khalid Elhassan April 27, 2020 34 min

Junkers Ju 88 - Aviation — A Junkers Ju 88. World Warbird News

5. Ruining Hitler’s Paris Vacation

German troops marching past the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Bundesarchiv Bild

Throughout his life, Adolf Hitler fancied himself a man of art and architecture. Indeed, growing up, the future German dictator had dreamt of becoming an artist or architect. His greatest hope had been to gain admission to the prestigious Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, and the rejection of his application – twice – was the most devastating setback of Hitler’s youth.

So when Paris fell to the German blitzkrieg in 1940, Hitler made a beeline for the captured French capital. He sought to not only savor his victory, but to also savor the City of Light’s art and architecture. However, Parisian members of a nascent French Resistance anticipated that move, and decided to deprive the conqueror of that small satisfaction.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.