Bathing suit models are shown listening to the radio on the beach, circa 1940's. (Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)

Dancers at the Windmill Theatre in London, England practice a routine wearing gas masks and hard-hats with their costumes, 1940. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Two men using an electric power saw to fell a tree circa 1940's. (Photo by Keystone View/FPG/Getty Images)

It is already one of the world’s most iconic cities, but this incredible collection shows how much Paris has changed over the course of the past century. The collection, by French photographer Julien Knez, shows Paris in the 1940s against a backdrop of how the same places look today. Knez says he put the striking collection together to celebrate the 71st anniversary of the city’s liberation from Nazi control in August 1944. Here: Soldiers outside the Hotel De Ville in the 1940s. (Photo by Julien Knez/Caters News)

A Russian prisoner eating bread. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images). Finland, circa 1940

Following a large air raid by German bombers, local people, coming out of their air raid shelters found a bus standing on end in a large crater, in Balham, London, October 15, 1940. (Photo by AP Photo)

Guests on the terrace of Shepheard's Hotel, Cairo, circa 1940. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)