The internet is overloaded with so much information, we sometimes suffer from information overload. Especially when it comes to history. There are so many different sources, perspectives, and facts, that it’s hard to wade through all the data. Wouldn’t it be nice to have somebody on hand to answer your most pressing history questions? Well, thanks to Reddit, many people are doing just that. Instead of combing through article upon article, a forum on Reddit called r/AskHistorians, gives people the opportunity to communicate with historians from different fields of study. So how does it work? People simply post a question about a history topic they want clarification on. And instead of them having to go do the research and potentially not find an answer, if they’re lucky, a historian will find it. Once they find it, the historian will give their best answer on the topic. It’s actually quite fascinating to read through. It also gives a little bit of hope that humanity hasn’t lost its ability to come together and critically think. We’ve compiled some of the best questions and answers here. We’ve also made sure that we’ve fact-checked the answers and added to it as we see necessary.
Hitler and His Entourage Apparently Did not Fear for their Lives While Visiting Paris
Q: When Hitler and his entourage visited Paris in 1940 they drove around in open top cars, Hitler sat in the front seat, they didn’t block off the streets, and there was only a small group bodyguard. We’re they not worried about security, sabotage, or even a Franz Ferdinand type situation?
A Historian’s Take: “A known lover of Art and Architecture, Adolf Hitler was pleased and excited to visit Paris himself, even more than when he had visited the fallen Warsaw. Paris was a city he had been reading about since his younger days at Vienna and Munich, even before his fighting in WWI and his involvement with politics. In that triumphant moment for the German Reich, he was not only a conqueror but also a tourist. On 23 June, Hitler and his entourage left the battle headquarters at Brûly-de-Peche, also known to the Nazis as Wolfsschlucht I, near the Fench-Belgium border at around 3:30 a.m, landed at 5:00 a.m North-East of Paris and entered the city before 6:00 a.m. The Führer had pragmatic reasons for visiting Paris at such early hours. He wanted to keep interactions and contact with locals to a minimum as to reduce the risk of an attempt on his life, to facilitate his movement through the empty streets and to avoid creating any kind of drama by him being there.
“He proceeded with visiting multiple landmarks, didn’t stop to eat or rest and was on his way back to the airfield two and half hours after he entered the city, finally taking off around 9:00 a.m. In that way, the ruler of Nazi Germany managed to visit the conquered city virtually unnoticed. To summarize, when Adolf Hitler visited Paris in 1940 he didn’t concern himself with setting up a huge security detail because of the following reasons: His visit was unannounced, the population of Paris had vastly left the city in fear of air raids and trying to avoid being under German occupation, Hitler arrived and left within two and a half hours, and his visit occurred before the majority of Paris residents left their houses.”