Propaganda photos of Paris under the Nazis draw fire
Last Updated: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 | 12:15 PM ET
CBC News
A photography exhibit depicting Second World War Paris as rosy and romantic, despite the Nazi occupation, is drawing criticism in France.
Paris Sous l'Occupation (Paris Under the Occupation) showcases more than 250 colour photos taken between 1941 and 1944 by French photographer André Zucca, who died in 1973. During the war, he had worked for a German propaganda magazine, which never ended up publishing the photos.
Zucca's upbeat images show a happy Paris: young women lounging in the sun alongside the Seine River or at the Luxembourg Gardens, families enjoying the outdoors, couples sitting in crowded cafés and children watching puppet shows.
Some images include Nazi officers mingling with crowds and Nazi signs or flags posted around the city. French Jews, wearing the yellow Star of David ordered by the Nazis, appear in just two of the photos.
Councillor, critics deplore 'unrealistic' portrait
Critics have blasted organizers for offering an unrealistic portrait of the Nazi-occupied city, noting that the exhibit shows nothing of other common scenes at the time: massive queues for food, signs promising death for Resistance fighters and the rounding up for Jews for deportation to death camps.
Christophe Girard, a city councillor and culture department head, is among those who have vehemently criticized the exhibit as revisionist.
Girard, who said he attended the exhibit's opening in March, told local media that he found the show "unbearable" and left the opening in disgust.
He and others protesting the show have called for historical context to be added or else for it to close.
Organizers hastily created a pamphlet adding historical explanations to the photos and are reportedly considering an open discussion on the topic of objectivity in art.
They have also removed posters advertising the exhibit, which has nonetheless drawn packed audiences to the historical library at city hall where the photos are being shown.
Paris Sous l'Occupation is scheduled to remain on display until July 1.
