21 May
’One could measure the dead by the rod. There they lay, tier above tier, each successive tier powdered over with a coating of chloride of lime - two hundred of them patent to the eye, besides those underneath hidden by the earth covering layer after layer.
‘Among the dead were many women. There, thrown up in the sunlight, was a well-rounded arm with a ring on one of the fingers; there, again, was a bust shapely in death. And yonder faces which to look upon made one shudder - faces distorted out of humanity with ferocity and agony combined.’
The suppression of the Paris Commune, The Daily News, 26 May 1871
Today in 1871 French troops stormed the Paris Commune marking the beginning of La Semaine Sanglante (the blood-soaked week). By the end of the week the Commune had fallen and deaths stood at an estimated 20000- 50000.
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