Biography

Dietrich von Choltitz was born in 1894. He died in 1966.

Von Choltitz, an army general, was the German military commander of Paris, France, when it was attacked by American and French forces in 1944. When it became obvious that the Germans could no longer hold Paris, von Choltitz was ordered by Adolf Hitler to destroy as much of the city as he could rather than let it fall intact into Allied hands. However, von Choltitz could not bring himself to do so, and against Hitler's orders surrendered the city--intact--and its garrison to the Allied army.