June 22: France surrenders to Germany in 1940

Following the German invasion of France in 1940 Hitler decided to wipe out history by having the French surrender in the same wagon on 22 June 1940. The carriage was then taken back to Berlin and put on display until 1943. With the advance of Berlin in 1945 the Waffen SS initially moved it into Thuringia and then finally destroyed it by fire.

The armistice of June 22, 1940 is the name of an agreement to end hostilities between the authorities of the German Third Reich and representatives of the French government of Marshal Petain, in the context of World War II, which was signed in Rethondes in that date, in the car called the armistice (the same one that had signed the armistice of November 11, 1918 that ended World War I).

A Frenchman wept as German soldiers marched into Paris on June 14, 1940. Source: National Archives and Records Administration.

It was necessary to prevent France continued alliance with Britain.

On the other hand, Hitler did not want to irritate either Italian or the Spanish potential allies. Hitler met with Benito Mussolini on June 18 in Munich to convince him to accept the instructions of Weygand that Hitler had foreseen with respect to France.

June 22, 1940. France surrenders, gets divided into German and Italian occupation zones, and an unoccupied rump state under the Vichy Regime.

Besides the two aforementioned areas, Germany recovered Alsace and Lorraine, both lost in the Treaty of Versailles and rename as the "forbidden zone".

Hitler walks through his Camps Elyséss: Germany's invasion of France culminated in France's surrender in a formal ceremony held in a railroad car in Compiegne Forest on June 22, 1940 

The armistice established the official conditions of the German occupation of France, which was divided into two main areas, the occupied zone, under German control, and the call free zone, under the authority of Vichy France.

Signing of the Franco-German Armistice at Compiègne (June 22, 1940)

By the German delegation attended, Hitler, Goering, Erich Raeder, Rudolf Hess, von Ribbentrop, Wilhelm Walther von Brauchitsch and Keitel. Paul-Otto Schmidt was Hitler's translator. By the French delegation were present Charles Huntziger, Leon Noel, Maurice Le Luc, Jean Bergeret and Georges Marie Joseph Parisot.