Bois de Boulogne Waterfall Monument

On 16 August 1944, 35 young people between 18 and 22 years old were shot behind the Reservoir pond after having fallen into a trap that led to their arrest. They belonged to three Resistance organisations and included 20 francs-tireurs and partisans from the town of Chelles, three members of the Civil and Military Youth Organisation and 12 Young Christian Fighters who wanted to participate in the liberation of Paris (25-26 August). They accepted a mission from a so-called intelligence service agent, who asked them to transport weapons, and showed up at the meeting place, Place des Ternes, without arms. Almost as soon as they did, they were encircled by the Gestapo and brought to its headquarters, where they were interrogated until 10pm before being taken to the waterfall and shot. Every year, this tragic event is commemorated on the spot where it occurred and where the old oak trees "still have the bullets that killed these teenage boys lodged in their hearts".

The Bois de Boulogne was bombed several times during the Second World War, but the most tragic incident took place on 4 April 1943, when six of the 38 bombs that fell on the 16th arrondissement hit the Longchamp racetrack on opening day, killing many civilians. In memory of that tragic day, coniferous trees were planted in the holes caused by the bombs in the forest, but a storm uprooted many of them in December 1999.
Bois de Boulogne Waterfall Bois de Boulogne Carrefour de Longchamp 75016 Paris