Paris during the occupation

The wartime photos by André Zucca were taken for the German propaganda magazine Signal, showing Paris during the occupation.


Goebbels decided that Paris should retain its pre-war image and wanted to show a city full of happy people. In many ways life did continue as before because people had to go to work, and would still go shopping, sit in the park and walk the streets during the four years that the occupation lasted for.


But if you look at the details, is it really a happy life the pictures are showing? Jewish people were forced to were the yellow Star of David, the bicycle charts replaced taxis because of the petrol shortage and how do we know if the people are fishing for fun or to bring some extra food to their rations?