Even before the war was over, the French began to collect documents and eye-witness accounts of the Occupation and the Resistance. This work was eventually presided over by the Comité pour l’Histoire de la Deuxième Guerre Mondiale. After its work was complete, all its documents  were placed in the Archives Nationales in Paris, and they have since been digitised. These cover all the documentation relating to the liberation of Paris, but also many thousands of documents from the Resistance and the Free French – original documents, eye-witness accounts, and so on.

However, getting into the documents is complex. I have written a document that explains how to do it; you can download a PDF of the document here:AN.

It may be that your computer system can directly access the images. Click here then on one of the ‘dossiers’ and then click on one of the greyed-out boxes that reads CONSULTER LES IMAGES ASSOCIEES. If you get an error message and not an image, you need to follow the instructions in this document: AN.