Shoah Memorial Exhibits 98 Photos of 1941 Paris Jewish Roundup
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · May 17
Shoah Memorial Exhibits 98 Photos of 1941 Paris Jewish Roundup
1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · May 17
Ninety-eight newly surfaced Nazi propaganda photos are now on display at Paris's Shoah Memorial, offering a rare visual record of the May 14, 1941 roundup of Jews in the French capital.
The images document the so-called green ticket roundup, in which about 3,700 foreign-born Jews answered police summonses they believed were routine identity checks and were instead trapped and separated.
A contact sheet found at a Reims flea market six years ago includes a striking image of a Jewish couple kissing before Vichy police split them apart, now a centerpiece of the exhibition.
Curators say the photographs, originally made to celebrate a Nazi operation organized by Adolf Eichmann envoy Theodor Dannecker, now serve as scarce evidence of victims' shock, fear and forced separation.
The exhibition also underscores how few photographs exist of anti-Jewish roundups and killings in the 1930s and 1940s, giving the collection broader importance for Holocaust memory and documentation.
Found in a flea market, can these photos finally give names to the faces of this forgotten 1941 roundup?
How did images designed as Nazi propaganda become powerful evidence of the Holocaust's human cost?
How did local collaboration in Paris set the stage for the Holocaust in France years before mass deportations began?
The Shoah Memorial’s Hidden Archive: 100 Newly Found Photos Illuminate the 1941 Green Ticket Roundup in Paris
Overview
In May 2021, the Shoah Memorial in Paris launched a significant exhibition that unveiled a series of recently acquired photographs, offering a rare and detailed look into the first mass arrest of Jews in Paris during World War II. These images, which were previously unknown, provide invaluable insight into events that were largely undocumented visually. The exhibition marked an important contribution to historical understanding, as only a few hundred photographs from the 1930s and 1940s exist showing the roundups or murders of Jews. By bringing these photographs to light, the Shoah Memorial has profoundly impacted how this hidden past is remembered and studied.