Propaganda pics of occupied Paris

[Sloan1874]

Fascinating set of colour propaganda pics taken by Nazis to show that Paris was thriving under occupation:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ch-capital-citizens-thriving-German-rule.html

 

[Shangas]

I remember a fantastic story about how when Paris was occupied, the Germans had to climb all the way to the top of the Eiffel Tower to stick the Swastika up there, because the elevators were "out of order" due to the invasion.

When the city was liberated in 1944, quick-thinking Parisians grabbed a Tricolour, climbed into the elevators at the ground floor, and shot up to the roof in minutes, ripped down the swastika and replaced it with a French flag in a fraction of the time.

 

[Sloan1874]

 

[Shangas]

I did a bit more research about that story.

The full facts are that when Paris fell to the Germans, the Parisians cut the elevator-lines. If Hitler wanted to go up the Eiffel Tower, then he would have to climb all the stairs all the way up, and all the way back down again. So would any Germans wanting to mount a flag on the tower. The Parisians insisted that because of the war-effort, it would be impossible to repair, or replace the steel elevator-cables, due to rationing and steel-shortages.

When the first Swastika was put on top of the Tower, the wind ripped it off and blew it away.

When Paris was liberated in August 1944, the elevator-cables were replaced, and within 24 hours of the German surrender of the city, the (replacement) Swastika flag was gone, replaced by a Tricolour.

 

[Metatron]

In spite of the horrible context, I do find some of those propaganda posters remarkable.
Some very cool casual outfits in those photos also.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Brilliant, thanks. I see little evidence of propaganda, though. They seem to me to be street scenes. Granted that they are very carefully selected street scenes, fulfilling his brief.

It wouldn't surprise me that these were everyday realistic scenes. While the British think they have a monopoly on stoic getting on with it, it's undoubted that the French denizens of Paris would do what everyone would under occupation - get on with it. The problem with labelling the photos propaganda is that every civilian who appears in them must be considered a collaborateur. Now, obviously these people existed, but in such numbers? If the propaganda label is correct (and in some sense I guess it must be, if that's the use to which the photos were put), but they were not all collaborateurs, then the scenes must be real street scenes, carefully selected to present the required image, but real all the same.

 

[Two Types]

I'm not sure about the 'propaganda' tag. I would have thought that, if they were just shot as propaganda, the Germans wouldn't have been so keen on so many shots of bicyce-carriages. I would have expected more jolly Frenchmen in cars. These just look like any street scene.