The lighter side (?) of WWII

[carebear]

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Entertainment/2008/04/26/photos_show_lighter_side_of_world_war_ii/9087/

PARIS, April 26 (UPI) -- A new photography exhibition in Paris shows a milder side of the Nazi occupation of France during World War II, visitors say.

Visitors to "The Parisians Under the Occupation" exhibit by photographer Andre Zucca said the captured images offer a rare take on the brutal forced occupation, one that is without the misery typically associated with the war, the International Herald Tribune reported Friday.

"You can't really feel that it's the occupation," tourist Serge Thilloux said of the exhibit. "You have the impression that people can walk about freely, while today there are plaques around Paris indicating where this or that person was shot."

"It shows how frighteningly normal life was," exhibit visitor Robert Schenker told the Tribune. "With the exception of the Germans in uniform, you can hardly see any difference from daily life now."

Zucca took the photographs while working for the Nazi propaganda magazine Signal and are being presented at a Paris Historical Library annex without any historical information, the newspaper said.

Historical photos (Nazi propaganda no less) without context? In a Historical Library?

 

[dhermann1]

Don't forget there was a very large component of French society that were collaborators. French soldiers fought with the Germans on the Russian front.
I've seen some pics of the new Paris fashions from the spring of 1943 and 1944. From the elegant fashion shots you'd NEVER guess there was even a slight little civil disturbance, let alone a war.

 

[Twitch]

I believe psychologically people had to hold onto some semblance of normalcy in order that they could rationalize making through each day. Even if some things were aberrant they made them a minimum in order to carry on.

 

[ShoreRoadLady]

Zucca took the photographs while working for the Nazi propaganda magazine Signal and are being presented at a Paris Historical Library annex without any historical information, the newspaper said.

Historical photos (Nazi propaganda no less) without context? In a Historical Library?

I don't doubt that life was "normal" to some degree during the occupation - after all, you had to have *some* normalcy, as Twitch said. But these are propaganda photos - of course everything's going to look just peachy! I'd consider it irresponsible to not place that information in the exhibit.

Wonder if the photographer has changed his opinions at all since the war...