A Spaniard is supposed to have disarmed General Von Choltitz when he
surrendered Paris towards the end of WW2. What is this Spaniard's
name?

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Request for Question Clarification by leli-ga on 13 Jun 2003 23:46 PDT

Hello hollyisa

The evidence I've found so far suggests it was a Frenchman. Would you
like an answer about him?

Or perhaps you have reason to believe that the "official" French
version of the story is incorrect?

Just let us know what you prefer.

Thanks - Leli

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Request for Question Clarification by scriptor-ga on 14 Jun 2003 05:16 PDT

Dear hollyisa,

The results of my research so far are:

- General Dietrich von Choltitz delivered his personal arms (such as
his officer's handgun) to a Frenchman on 25 August 1944. I have found
detail on this event on an official French website.

- Later the same day, von Choltitz formally surrendered Paris to two
other Frenchmen, one of which was a Résistance commander who had also
fought in the late 30s in the Spanish Civil War on the side of the
Republicans. Could this veteran of the Spanish Civil War, although he
was French, be the "Spaniard" you are referring to?

Please let me know if you would like what I found out in detail as an
answer.

Best regards,
Scriptor

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Clarification of Question by hollyisa-ga on 14 Jun 2003 14:47 PDT

Hi, both:

Thanks for your efforts. If we are sure that he surrendered his arms
to a Frenchman, then that's it. I edit a magazine and one of the
writers has put that it was a Spaniard - if there's any evidence at
all for this (though it seems unlikely from what Scriptor wrote), then
let's go with it. If not, then we can close. I would like any URL's
you used.

Thanks again.

Dear hollyisa,

It is indeed a fact that it was not a Spaniard who disarmed General
Dietrich von Choltitz, if you mean by "disarming" that he took the
personal weapons from the German commander of Paris.

Actually, the man who did that was a Frenchman, Henri Karcher (b. 26
October 1908, d. 31 July 1983). The event is described on the website
of the French "Ordre de la Libération" (Liberation Order):

"He [Henri Karcher] had the garrison [of von Choltitz' headquarters,
the Hôtel Meurice] consisting of about sixty staff officers and a
hundered men arrested. Then, he went immediately into the office of
General von Coltitz, who handed over his weapons to him."

(Original French text: "Il fait prisonnier la garnison comprenant une
soixantaine d'officiers d'Etat-major et une centaine d'hommes. Il se
porte ensuite immediatement dans le bureau du général von Choltitz qui
lui remet ses armes.")

Source:
Ordre de la Libération: Les Compagnons de la Libération - Henri
Karcher (in French!)
http://www.ordredelaliberation.fr/fr_compagnon/516.html

A bit of biographical detail on Henri Karcher, extracted from the
French text on the Order de la Libération website:
Henri Karcher was born on 25 October 1908 in Saint-Dié, France. He
studied medicine in Paris and became assisting surgeon of a professor
at the Medical Faculty of Paris. Shortly after the outbreak of World
War II, in September 1939, he joined the French army's 24th Infantry
Regiment as a volunteer and was soon promoted corporal. At the time of
cease fire in 1940, Karcher was adjutant and retreated with his unit
to the Bordeaux region. Refusing to surrender to the Germans, he and
several of his comrades managed to get to England and joined the Free
French forces. From 1940 to 1942, Karcher participated in campaigns in
the Middle East and Africa and was rapidly promoted to the rank of a
lieutenant. After D-Day, he returned to France with his unit, and on
25 August 1944, he disarmed the German city-commander of Paris,
General von Choltitz, in the Hôtel Meurice. In 1945, he received the
high order "Croix de la Libération" from General de Gaulle and finally
left military service to work as a surgeon again. He was also active
in politics; for example, he represented the Moselle Department in the
French National Assembly from 1962-1967. On 31 July 1985, Henri
Karcher died in Sarrebourg, France.

Later that 25 August 1944, General von Choltitz was brought to the
Town Hall of Paris, where two men were waiting for him to receive his
formal surrender, quasi his "grand disarming". Those men were General
Leclerc, of the Free French forces, and Henri Tanguy, alias Colonel
Rol, the head of the Résistance in Paris. This militant Communist,
born 12 June 1908 in Morlaix, had fought on the Republican side in the
Spanish Civil War from 1937-1938. Since Rol-Tanguy, who died on 8
September 2002 in Paris, was indeed a "Spanish" veteran and has
co-signed Choltitz' declaration of surrender, it is possible that he
is the mysterious "Spaniard" you mentioned.

Source:
Ordre de la Libération: Les Compagnons de la Libération - Henri
Rol-Tanguy (in French!)
http://www.ordredelaliberation.fr/fr_compagnon/947.html


Additional sources:

Paris Libéré: Chronology of the Liberation
http://www.paris.org/Expos/Liberation/chronoA.html

Paris Libéré: The Act of Surrender
http://www.paris.org/Expos/Liberation/Surrender/act.html

Paris Libéré: Colonel Rol
http://www.paris.org/Expos/Liberation/Actors/rol.html

L'Humanité: Henri Rol-Tanguy est mort (in French, Google Cache!)
://www.google.de/search?q=cache:eMI5uw1Fh58J:www.humanite.presse.fr/journal/2002/2002-09/2002-09-10/2002-09-10-012.html+choltitz+%22half+track%22&hl=de&ie=UTF-8

Paul Kneisel, "The Internet Anti-Fascist: Tue, 10 September 2002."
Online posting (2002-09-11). <misc.activism.progressive> via Google
Groups.
http://groups.google.de/groups?q=choltitz+spanish&hl=de&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&scoring=d&selm=alp43j%24qi0%241%40pencil.math.missouri.edu&rnum=1

A Segunda Guerra Mundial: Luta na Frente Ocidental - Von Choltitz
decide
http://adluna.sites.uol.com.br/400/499-26.htm
A Brazlian website describing amon other things von Choltitz'
surrender to Henri Karcher in detail. Please follow this link to read
an automatically generated (far from perfect) English version:
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fadluna.sites.uol.com.br%2F400%2F499-26.htm&langpair=pt%7Cen&hl=de&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8

Search terms used:
"von choltitz" spanish
http://groups.google.de/groups?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=%22von+choltitz%22+spanish&sa=N&tab=wg&meta=
"von choltitz" meurice
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=%22von+choltitz%22+meurice&meta=
choltitz rol
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=choltitz+rol&meta=

Hope this helps!
Best regards,
Scriptor

Can't do better than that!