How Did Notre Dame Avoid an Earlier Fire?

4/16/2019

Gargoyles could not save much of Notre Dame

While Notre Dame was burning on Monday, several American commentators referred to the book, and subsequent movie, “Is Paris Burning?” – about the German general who allegedly disobeyed Hitler’s orders to level the city during the retreat of 1944.

The cathedral is a geographical center for France, and the beating heart of Paris to all of us who visit and love it -- or even have the privilege of living there for a month here and there.

We took our three children to Paris in April of 1975, almost immediately visiting Notre Dame, where our youngest fell in love with the gargoyles who still broodingly guarded over the city, even as flames raged on Monday. On that family trip, three decades after the War, we talked about World War Two, grateful that this beautiful city, this beautiful cathedral, had survived.

On Monday, les pompiers, the firefighters, controlled the blaze. Paris was burning. Of course, people thought about the book and the movie.

However, when I went to the Web, I realized there is considerable historical debate about whether General Dietrich von Choltitz overtly acted to save Paris or merely dragged his feet, while saving his own life and shoring up one tattered corner of his reputation. Did the general really say no?

"If he saved only Notre Dame, that would be enough reason for the French to be grateful," the general's son, Timo, told a British newspaper in 2004. "But he could have done a lot more.”

The general’s alleged act of refusal and respect for a glorious city – perhaps self-aggrandizement -- comes up sometimes when conscience is the subject. From my American perspective, I immediately linked the survival of Paris, the endurance of the cathedral on the Île de la Cité, with overt acts of terror and torture perpetrated by Donald Trump on the border with Mexico.

Who says no? Who follows the law? Who cares for fellow humans? The legend of a general who participated in the Holocaust, is back in the ozone, revived by the horrible fire.

We want to be grateful to a German general who may have said “No,” but there are so many questions. He said he acted out of military prudence, as a trained general, who surely considered himself above the unskilled, ignorant, raving “leader.”

Germany of the ‘30s never had enough leaders who could say “no.” Does any nation have enough people in positions of power, responsibility, who can muster the inner strength to say no?

This is a very current debate for those Americans who now consider the military – the tradition of service, adherence to law – as one of the last strengths of the nation.

Who will say no? I am reminded of this every time I see videos of one of Trump’s people, Kirstjen Nielsen, sighing patronizingly when questioned by (Democratic) representatives about putting children in cages. Soon afterward she was pushed out by Trump for not doing enough to separate and harm (torture, if you will) les misérables on our borders.

The urge to survive, by Gen. von Choltitz might have helped save Paris in 1944. Is inaction enough when evil orders are given? Who will say no?
* * *
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_von_Choltitz

https://www.thelocal.fr/20140825/nazi-general-didnt-save-paris-expert

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1966/11/06/83551081.pdf

Madeleine Schreiber

4/16/2019 10:39:48 am

That is what I wonder every day - when will the Republicans realize that Trump is a danger to our democracy and stop supporting his every action.

George Vecsey

4/16/2019 11:20:35 am

Hi. Strange to see a cathedral burning and doing segue to my own country....but the answer is, Not Soon Enough, not with Supine Senators like McConnell and Graham. Nice to see your name in the queue. GV

bruce

4/16/2019 11:27:27 am

madeleine,

I say this as a non american, but as a citizen of a country that is a mortal security threat to the usa…..they aren't americans, they're republicans first.

bruce

4/16/2019 10:43:02 am

george,

good piece and segue.

i read the book and saw the movie. goldfinger (gert frobe) was the 'good' guy. he was also in the longest day.

i'm feeling devastated......i was most alarmed about the stained glass windows, but it seems the rose windows might be ok.

as you know, i've been to paris many (24) times with another trip in october.

one of my best life memories is sitting in notre dame in mid october 2017 listening to a concert of gregorian chants/medieval music.

definition of ineffable.

the next morning my hotel room exploded and caught on fire right after i woke up....a strong double memory.

it was heartening to hear three bigwigs and companies have already pledged 500,000,000 euros for the restoration.

i found out yesterday that french firefighters have intense training in the military and then many end up in municipal government.

it concerns me that there might not be enough craftsman with the skill to duplicate those ancient skills.

i didn't hear anybody mention that all distances to paris are measured from notre dame.

as for guts.....republicans have shown themselves to have the backbone of jellyfish.

graham is particularly obnoxious. cruz dishonoured himself by sucking up to trump......can you imagine toadying up to somebody who had attacked your wife?

every day republicans disgrace themselves more and more.

as does your monster in chief, but it doesn't bother him...he has no shame. world class liar. gold medal like.

bruce

George Vecsey

4/16/2019 11:22:55 am

wow.....lot of good times in all those visits. plus a fire.....
the city will be disrupted for a long time. adjacent apartment bldgs in trouble....but great cities go on.
GV

bruce

4/16/2019 11:32:32 am

george,

I mentioned to a friend yesterday that this is now part of notre dame's history.

in 2519 they will recall this along with the coronation of napoleon, the state funerals, the comfort that it was THERE.....

and as bad as I feel about it, I would've felt even worse had it been chartres.

bruce

Hansen Alexander

4/17/2019 12:03:12 pm

A beautiful piece of writing and an outstanding analogy, George.

Indeed, who will say no to the monsters?
Count all of us here.

Regards,
Hansen

Ed Martin

4/17/2019 04:04:24 pm

Thanks for the article and the context. Just yesterday trumpery vetoed a bi-partisan bill that limited US bombing in Yemen and I thought, there was a time when Republicans would overturn a veto of legislation they had passed, partly in principle, partly in affirmation of their Constitutional role. I doubt they will, today. McConnell would probably not even allow it to be considered.

On Paris, it has been 51 years since we first visited and although there are other fine cities, nothing replaces Paris, even much changed over those years. Not only Notre Dame, But Les Halles, Jeu de Palme, Germain de Pres, and so much more. One image, a rare upscale evening for us, was visiting with some more affluent friends, the three star Michelin, “Tour d’Argent” where the lighting of Notre Dame was the high light of the visit. Merci.

Comments are closed.

QUOTES

Measuring Covid Deaths, by David Leonhardt. July 17, 2023. NYT online.
The United States has reached a milestone in the long struggle against Covid: The total number of Americans dying each day — from any cause — is no longer historically abnormal….

After three horrific years, in which Covid has killed more than one million Americans and transformed parts of daily life, the virus has turned into an ordinary illness.

The progress stems mostly from three factors:
First, about three-quarters of U.S. adults have received at least one vaccine shot.
Second, more than three-quarters of Americans have been infected with Covid, providing natural immunity from future symptoms. (About 97 percent of adults fall into at least one of those first two categories.)
Third, post-infection treatments like Paxlovid, which can reduce the severity of symptoms, became widely available last year.
“Nearly every death is preventable,” Dr. Ashish Jha, who was until recently President Biden’s top Covid adviser, told me. “We are at a point where almost everybody who’s up to date on their vaccines and gets treated if they have Covid, they rarely end up in the hospital, they almost never die.”

That is also true for most high-risk people, Jha pointed out, including older adults — like his parents, who are in their 80s — and people whose immune systems are compromised. “Even for most — not all but most —immuno-compromised people, vaccines are actually still quite effective at preventing against serious illness,” he said. “There has been a lot of bad information out there that somehow if you’re immuno-compromised that vaccines don’t work.”

That excess deaths have fallen close to zero helps make this point: If Covid were still a dire threat to large numbers of people, that would show up in the data.

One point of confusion, I think, has been the way that many Americans — including we in the media — have talked about the immuno-compromised. They are a more diverse group than casual discussion often imagines.

Most immuno-compromised people are at little additional risk from Covid — even people with serious conditions, such as multiple sclerosis or a history of many cancers. A much smaller group, such as people who have received kidney transplants or are undergoing active chemotherapy, face higher risks.

Covid’s toll, to be clear, has not fallen to zero. The C.D.C.’s main Covid webpage estimates that about 80 people per day have been dying from the virus in recent weeks, which is equal to about 1 percent of overall daily deaths.

The official number is probably an exaggeration because it includes some people who had virus when they died even though it was not the underlying cause of death. Other C.D.C. data suggests that almost one-third of official recent Covid deaths have fallen into this category. A study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases came to similar conclusions.

Dr. Shira Doron, the chief infection control officer at Tufts Medicine in Massachusetts, told me that “age is clearly the most substantial risk factor.” Covid’s victims are both older and disproportionately unvaccinated. Given the politics of vaccination, the recent victims are also disproportionately
Republican and white.

Each of these deaths is a tragedy. The deaths that were preventable — because somebody had not received available vaccines and treatments — seem particularly tragic. (Here’s a Times guide to help you think about when to get your next booster shot.)
***

From the great Maureen Dowd:

As I write this, I’m in a deserted newsroom in The Times’s D.C. office. After working at home for two years during Covid, I was elated to get back, so I could wander around and pick up the latest scoop.
But in the last year, there has been only a smattering of people whenever I’m here, with row upon row of empty desks. Sometimes a larger group gets lured in for a meeting with a platter of bagels."

--- Dowd writes about the lost world of journalists clustered in newsrooms at all hours, smoking, drinking, gossipping, making phone calls, typing, editing.
***
"Putting out the paper," we called it.
Much more than nostalgia.
---https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/opinion/journalism-newsroom.html

How Did Notre Dame Avoid an Earlier Fire?

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