The Bells That Broke the Silence

On August 25, 1944, the great bell Emmanuel — thirteen tons of bronze hanging in the south tower of Notre-Dame — had been silent through four years of Nazi occupation. That afternoon, as General Leclerc's 2nd Armored Division rumbled through the streets of Paris, someone climbed the tower stairs and set the bell swinging. Its deep voice rolled across the rooftops, and within minutes every church bell in Paris answered.…