"Is Paris Burning?"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Mon, 14 Nov 2005 12:30:18 -0600, Mullins, Bill wrote:

>I think this line comes from a story during WWII.  Supposedly the
>Germans who held Paris would burn it down before letting it be retaken
>by the allies.  Someone informed Hitler that the Allies were moving in,
>and he asked "Is Paris burning?"

Dominique LaPierre, one of the authors of the 1964 book, says he
encountered Hitler's question ("Brennt Paris?") in the diary of General
Walter Warlimont, former deputy chief of staff of the Wehrmacht, in an
entry on August 25, 1944. See Lapierre's _A Thousand Suns: Witness to
History_:

http://print.google.com/print?id=wnxVB1N2qiAC&q=brennt


--Ben Zimmer