Photography as Resistance in Nazi-Occupied Paris

11 AM LOS ANGELES • 2 PM NEW YORK

In a remarkable discovery, an album containing clandestine unsigned photographs of Nazi-occupied Paris was found at a Paris flea market in 2020. This collection, initially shrouded in mystery, has been attributed to Raoul Minot, an amateur photographer who risked his life to document the era. Minot’s work, comprising nearly 1,300 images, offers a unique perspective of life under the occupation, when taking such photos was strictly forbidden. A four-year investigation by the newspaper Le Monde has finally uncovered Minot’s identity along with the fact that he was ultimately denounced by a fellow Frenchman, sent to Buchenwald and died in the Holocaust as an unknown hero of the resistance.

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THE SCHEDULE

⇒ January 10-13, listen to the National Public Radio program How France Uncovered the Mystery of the Forbidden Photos of Nazi-Occupied Paris on your home device. A link will be provided to all who register.

⇒ Sunday, January 12 at 2:00 p.m. US Eastern Time, tune into the program with our distinguished panel of speakers. A link will be provided to all who register.

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MEET THE SPEAKERS

Eleanor Beardsley (left) is the Paris correspondent for National Public Radio where she covers all aspects of French society, politics, economics, culture and gastronomy. She is also a core part of NPR’s breaking news team in Europe and beyond, recently covering the conflict in Israel, the earthquake in Morocco and the war in Ukraine. She worked as a television news producer for French broadcaster TF1 in Washington, D.C. Beardsley holds a Master’s Degree in International Business from the University of South Carolina, her native state.  In 2016 she profiled the Sousa Mendes Foundation’s “Journey on the Road to Freedom” tour on her NPR broadcast. 

Historian Dr. Susan Zuccotti (right) is the author of the groundbreaking book The Holocaust, the French and the Jews. She holds a PhD in Modern European History from Columbia University. She has won a National Jewish Book Award and the Premio Acqui Storia – Primo Lavoro for Italians and the Holocaust (1987). She also received a National Jewish Book Award and the Sybil Halpern Milton Memorial Prize of the German Studies Association for Under His Very Windows (2000) on Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust. She has taught courses on Holocaust history at both Barnard and Trinity Colleges. She has appeared as a historical expert in numerous documentary films.

Dr. Louis Kaplan is recognized internationally for his innovative historical and theoretical contributions to the field of photography studies. He is a Professor of History and Theory of Photography and New Media at the University of Toronto and is an expert on photography and resistance during World War II. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and an undergraduate degree from Harvard. He is currently working on a full-length interdisciplinary project titled “Jewish Photographic Humor in Dark Times: Reflections on Visual First Responders to the Third Reich.”

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Registration for this program will close on Thursday, January 9, 2025 at 10 PM ET. Instructions and links will be emailed to all registrants on Friday, January 10 and again on the morning of the program.