Montpellier Photography Exhibit: Views of the Ghettos and Images of a Dictator

Montpellier’s Pavillon Populaire, located in the city’s ​Jardin du Champs de Mars, is currently hosting a two-part photography exhibit which deals with the use of photography as propaganda. It is a moving exhibit, and sheds light on some of key elements incorporated by the Nazis.

Views of the Ghettos explores not only official Nazi photographs, but photographs taken secretly and smuggled out of the ghettos or hidden and recovered later. There are interviews with survivors who told how the "official" photographs were taken, how they were encouraged to look happy or busy or unconcerned. The photographs which were taken in secret show grief, fear, and poverty.

​Here are a few examples of photographs not taken by official Nazi photographers.

There were other photographs of loved ones exchanging last kisses through a chain link fence, old men with shoes held together by string, a Jewish boy sitting inside a wire fence while boys and a woman outside the fence lay on the ground to talk to him. It is difficult to fathom any group of people put behind fences for their race or religion, but seeing children behind fences really makes my blood boil.

The other part of the exhibit, Images of a Dictator, was informative but visually repugnant. In 1923, Hitler hired Heinrich Hoffman as his official photographer. Around the same time, Hitler began carefully curating his public image--the greasy hair with one lock falling out of place, the nose-width mustache, the uniform, the grim expression. He wanted to be noticed and remembered, and did not care if his image was attractive or sympathetic. He only wanted to imprint himself indelibly in people’s minds, and his ubiquitous image became his brand. Hoffman understood this and framed Hitler in positions of power--in front of large crowds, with the military, in staff meetings, pointing, shaking his fist in the air. One room of the exhibit contained only photographs of Hitler rehearsing gestures. He studied them in his effort to refine his image. Try as you might, you’ll never get that image out of your head.

I choose not to include any photographs of Hitler here because you already know what he looks like and I do not want to focus on the monster. As George Santayana said, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” so let’s learn from this. Focusing on the image blurs the line between perception and reality. There’s a reason for that--a public figure who focuses more on a heavily cultivated image than on a message might be trying to distract you from something sinister. Beware.

I’m glad I saw this exhibit, even though it was painful. The most hopeful moment for me was seeing a grandmother walking her two little granddaughters through Views of the Ghettos. She paused in front of one or two age-appropriate photographs in each room and talked to the girls about them. If little girls in pink t-shirts and denim skirts can learn about how to treat each other from their grandmothers who lived close to that time, there is hope for our world.

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