On June 14, 1940, Parisians were awakened by a voice with a German accent announcing over the loudspeaker that a curfew would be imposed at 8:00 p.m. that evening because German troops were about to invade and occupy Paris.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had spent days trying to convince the French government not to ask for peace, but to insist that America enter the war and come to the aid of the French government. French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud sent a cable to President Franklin Roosevelt asking for just that help—a declaration of war, and if not that, then any help it could get. Roosevelt replied that the United States was ready to send material aid—and was ready to make that promise public—but Secretary of State Cordell Hull opposed such a publication, knowing that Hitler and the Allies would view such a public declaration of aid as merely a prelude to a formal declaration of war. While the material aid would be provided, such a pledge would not be made formal and public.

By the time the German tanks rolled into Paris, two million Parisians had already fled, and for good reason. Shortly thereafter, the German Gestapo set to work: arrests, interrogations, and espionage were the order of the day, while a swastika flew over the Arc de Triomphe.

The following color photographs were taken in Paris in June 1940 by Hugo Jaeger, Adolf Hitler’s personal photographer.