June 9, 1940

While reports on the front page were dedicated to reports French army “stubbornly [battling] for every inch,” a story ran on the back of the single sheet issue with the headline “Hitler Is asked to Return Copy of the Liberty Bell”.

See it in the product.

June 11, 1940

The final issue of the International Herald Tribune published before the 4-year Nazi occupation of Paris. One more issue was written and printed, but delivery trucks in route to their destinations were trapped in the traffic of people fleeing the city and the issue never made it to newsstands. The lead headline is Italy’s declaration of war on France, a decisive turning point in the Battle of France. The article “Parisians Leave in Countless Thousands as City Realizes Dangers,” describes the human tragedy of Parisians exodus from the city.

“All day long streams of cars and trucks loaded down until the springs gave way poured out of the city. It was heartbreaking to watch them for here once more was that sad old story that has been told many times, of twisted lives, of poverty, of flight before an invader, of separation perhaps forever from mothers and fathers and children”

 “Paris before dawn yesterday was a city of men, women and children fleeing to safety, of countless thousands of families joining the millions of refugees from the north who have fled before the German mechanized army in these last few weeks.”

See it in the product.