At Place de la Concorde, a German soldier in uniform stands alongside a woman, as the photographer casts a shadow on the ground behind them. From the private collection of Stéphanie Colaux and Stéphane Jaegle
For NPR's Morning Edition, Eleanor Beardsley reporting from Paris, Nick Spicer from Washington, D.C.:
"How France uncovered the mystery of the forbidden photos of Nazi-occupied Paris"
"The search for the unknown photographer began in the summer of 2022, with the discovery of an old photo album at a flea market in the town of Barjac, in the south of France.
Documentary producer Stéphanie Colaux had long enjoyed looking through old photos, haggling over the price of an album and imagining the stories behind the weddings and birthdays of the everyday past.
But this time she found something extraordinary and precious — and it came with a challenge.
German soldiers at the Pantin market stand. From the private collection of Stéphanie Colaux and Stéphane Jaegle
'As I flipped through the pages I realized, my God, it’s all scenes of [Nazi] occupied Paris. And I knew I’d found a treasure,' she says. 'And then I read the little note in the front. "If you find this album," it said, "take care of it and have the courage to look at it." I thought, someone sent a message in a bottle and I just found it.'"
Four years and fortuitous discoveries finally led to a man working in Paris who went around taking photos, at the risk of death (literally), probably with a Kodak Brownie under his coat, to document the Nazi occupation.
“These photos let us see the real city...A city emptied of most of its inhabitants, with deserted streets, no cars. They are hard, gray and sad.”
The album found in the flea market was matched with two other collections (one in a museum, another in a private collection) amounting to several hundred images. The "shadow" photographer was eventually denounced and sent to Buchenwald, but surprisingly and sadly, he didn't die in the concentration camp, but in a U.S. military hospital after liberation.
The "shadow:" An image of part of a document containing a photo of Raoul Minot from the French Ministry of Deported Prisoners and Refugees. France's Service Historique de la Défense.
Full story with audio button.
A cautionary tale?
