Colorized photo of American liberators as they watch the Eiffel tower fly the French Tricolors again

This is a colorized photo taken after the liberation of France in Aug 1944, as the tricolors were hoisted back to its rightful position atop the historic Eiffel Tower. Hitler had earlier ordered this land landmark destroyed along with the entire Pari when he heard about the upcoming liberation of the country. The City fell to German occupation on June 14, 1940, French resistance fighters allegedly cut the elevator cables to the Eiffel Tower. This meant that if Hitler wanted to hoist a swastika flag, a soldier would have to climb the roughly 1710 stairs to the summit platform.

As Allies neared Paris in August 1944, a Frenchman scaled the tower and hung the French flag. When it became obvious that the Germans would lose Paris, Hitler ordered General Dietrich von Choltitz, the military governor of Paris, to turn the city into rubble – including the Eiffel Tower. General von Choltitz did not carry out the command. Reportedly, within hours of the Liberation of Paris, the Tower’s lifts worked again.