Paris: Snapping with the Enemy
Written by Amanda MacKenzie
Oh, dear. The shadow of wartime collaboration has been haunting Parisians again.This week I got myself along to the Marais to see the exhibition that so outraged the city’s deputy mayor that he was all set to close it down – just as soon as he figured out how. That’s the kind of publicity you just can’t buy. “Parisians Under the Occupation”…The Pictures They Don’t Want You To See!
The queue for this earnest, disturbing exhibition stretched out of the door, surely a first for the Bibliothèque Historique de Paris.”Parisians sous l’Occupation” manages to offend not by what it shows, but by what it doesn’t. No jackboot brutality, executions or Jewish round-ups here. Which is pretty much what you’d expect from a photographer on the payroll of a Nazi propaganda mouthpiece. Andre Zucca’s portrayal of Paris during the occupation is about as multi-dimensional as those home movie reels of Adolf making Eva giggle at the Berghof.
Then again, Forrest Gump could have figured that out, even without any nannying from the Mayor’s office.Fascinating stuff, though. These are the only colour images of occupied Paris taken by a French photographer. Now that printed warnings are being thrust into your hands as you enter, the exhibition is good until 1st July.
- Paris Sous l’Occupation, Bibliotheque Historique de Paris, 22, rue Malher, 4th.
