Hidden History in Paris

This small building, no longer in use, was once one of the four police posts of the 20e Arrondissement, built around the turn of the last century. The Paris coat of arms at the top is an early work by French sculptor Gaston-Auguste Schweitzer.

Two plaques next to the door commemorate Paris policemen who died during the Nazi occupation of Paris. One was arrested in 1941 and died in a concentration camp in 1945.

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The other two were part of a more spectacular story; when the August 1944 rebellion began in Paris Resistance forces rounded up a number of collaborators and German soldiers and held them in the station. The two officers died when a German patrol arrived to free the prisoners.