Hotel Lutetia

Born a fancy hotel in the early 1900s, this building hosted parties, balls, Russian refugees, German Jews, Nazi elite, resistance fighters, and concentration camp survivors in the first few decades of its existence. Named for the old Roman Lutetia, this hotel now provides a more luxurious setting.

The plaque outside reads:

Hotel Lutetia

“From April to August 1945, this hotel, which had become a reception center, received the greater part of the survivors of the Nazi concentration camps, glad to have regained their liberty and their loved ones from whom they had been snatched. Their joy cannot erase the anguish and pain of the families of the thousands who disappeared who waited here in vain for their own in this place.”

General de Gaulle ordered the requisition of L’Hôtel Lutetia on Boulevard Raspail, the former headquarters of the Gestapo. There, survivors were nursed back to health and, if possible, reunited with their families.