Ensemble Theatre, Sydney
March 29, 2018

Adolf Hitler apparently loved Paris. Shortly after German troops invaded the French capital in May 1940, the Führer took a sight-seeing tour there and was dazzled, seeing the city as “the jewel in the crown of the Third Reich” as John Bell put it in a recent article. However, four years later, when Allied Forces were closing in to liberate the city, Hitler issued orders that Paris be completely destroyed.

John Bell and John Gaden. Photograph © Prudence Upton

Explosives were placed at all the major railway stations and architectural, historical and cultural landmarks from Notre Dame to The Louvre to the Eiffel Tower. What’s more, there were no plans to evacuate the city’s two million inhabitants. The Nazis knew that between one million and two million people would die but Hitler was determined that the city shouldn’t fall into enemy hands, and that if he couldn’t have it, no one would.

The man charged with overseeing the destruction was General Dietrich von Choltitz. The man who took much of the credit for changing his mind was Swedish diplomat Raoul Nordling. In his 2011 play Diplomatie (Diplomacy), French playwright...