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Raoul Minot
Raoul Minot
	Raoul Minot
Born	September 28, 1893; Montluçon, France
Died	April 28, 1945 (aged 51); Cham, Germany
Occupation(s)	Salesman, amateur photographer
Years active	1940–1942
Known for	Forbidden photography

Raoul Minot (September 28, 1893, Montluçon, France – April 28, 1945, Cham, Germany) was a French amateur photographer who was imprisoned in France and deported to concentration camps in Germany during the Second World War for his clandestine photography in Nazi-occupied Paris. He survived internment, but died in Germany soon after his liberation.

Minot emerged from obscurity in the summer of 2024 as a result of a four-year investigation by Le Monde journalist Philippe Broussard around the discovery of Minot's anonymous prints.

Early life

Raoul Minot was born on September 28, 1893, in Montluçon, France.^[1] In March 1911, he was hired as a scarf vendor in the Parisian department store Printemps.^[2] In 1914, he was mobilized for the First World War, during which he earned the Croix de guerre with bronze medal.^[1]

After the First World War, he returned to the Printemps department store, where he met Marthe Bedos, whom he married. The couple moved from Paris to nearby Courbevoie in the 1920s. They had a daughter, Jacqueline. Minot was a passionate amateur photographer and regularly photographed vacations and war veteran events that he attended in Courbevoie.^[2]

Photography

Starting in 1940, under the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Minot took more than a thousand photos of daily life in Paris, which was formally prohibited by the Kommandantur authorities. He used a Kodak Brownie, and developed negatives thanks to the photo laboratory within his workplace at Printemps. He sold some photos to Louis Juven, an occasional agent of the French Resistance.^[2]^[3]

In November 1942, an unnamed informant denounced Minot's activities to the occupation.^[3] After an investigation by the Special Brigades, Minot was imprisoned in early 1943 at Fresnes Prison and then transferred to the Royallieu-Compiègne internment camp.^[2]^[4]

When Minot was arrested, many of his photos and materials were seized by the French police, and the photographic works of his unique genre went unknown for several decades.^[2]

On April 20, 1943, Minot was deported from France to Mauthausen concentration camp in Germany.^[5] On October 17, 1943, he was transferred to Buchenwald, where he was used as forced labor.^[1]

In 1945, he was evacuated with other prisoners from Buchenwald and arrived at Flossenbürg before being forced onto a death march for about two weeks.^[2] He was liberated by the Americans on April 23, 1945, but died on April 28 in a hospital in Cham, Germany.^[2] His body has never been recovered.^[3]

Legacy

Before the discovery of his wartime photography, a single photo attributed to an "M. Minot" was published by Printemps in a booklet in 1965, commemorating the department store's centenary.^[2]

Since 1999, Museum of National Resistance has hosted a collection of Minot's photos, unattributed until 2024. They have been traced back to a donation by Daniel Leduc, son of résistant Paul Leduc who had apparently saved the photos from his work in 1945.^[6]

In 2020, another batch of 117 photos saved by Renée Damien, a colleague of Minot, were published in a book by Albert Hude titled Paris humilié, 1940-1941, Chronique photographique inédite en 101 clichés.^[7]^[8]

Also in 2020, photo album collector Stéphanie Colaux found in a flea market in Barjac, Gard, an album with photos from the Nazi occupation of Paris between 1940 and 1942. Aware of their historical importance, she reached out to Le Monde newspaper about her find, and the newspaper proceeded to investigate the source of the photos. In August 2024, the newspaper published a series of five articles by Philippe Broussard detailing the results of the investigation and identifying Minot as the photographer, surmising that he may have had accomplices. Otherwise, the provenance of the album found at the flea market remains a mystery.^[2]

All of Minot's known photos were numbered, and many were embellished with his caustic comments about the German occupiers, some of which were erased. These photos show Paris and her closest suburbs between 1940 and 1942, particularly German soldiers in the capital, buildings and deserted streets, civilians queuing for rations, military equipment, propaganda leaflets, and anti-German inscriptions.^[2]^[3]

On September 11, 2024, the National Office for Veterans and Victims of War declared Minot a Mort pour la France, a title reserved for honored war dead.^[3]^[4]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "MINOT Raoul KLB 22626" [Raoul Minot BCC 22626] (in French). Association Française Buchenwald Dora et Kommandos. Archived from the original on August 16, 2024. Retrieved October 31, 2024.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Broussard, Philippe (August 16, 2024). "Sur les traces du photographe inconnu du Paris de l'Occupation : le destin tragique de Raoul Minot, un héros oublié" [On the trail of the unknown photographer of occupied Paris: the tragic destiny of Raoul Minot, a forgotten hero] (in French). Le Monde. Archived from the original on August 16, 2024. Retrieved October 31, 2024.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Seconde guerre mondiale : Raoul Minot, le photographe du Paris occupé" [Second World War: Raoul Minot, the photographer of occupied Paris] (in French). France 24. October 30, 2024. Retrieved November 10, 2024.
^ ^a ^b Broussard, Philippe (September 14, 2024). "La photo retrouvée de Raoul Minot, le " photographe fantôme " du Paris occupé" [The photo of Raoul Minot, the “ghost photographer” of occupied Paris, found] (in French). Le Monde. Retrieved October 31, 2024.
^ "MINOT Raoul. Matricule : 28343" [Raoul Minot, registration number 28343] (in French). Amicale of the deportees, families and friends of Mauthausen. Retrieved October 31, 2024.
^ Broussard, Philippe (August 13, 2024). "Sur les traces du photographe inconnu du Paris de l'Occupation : à la recherche du commandant Leduc" [On the trail of the unknown photographer of occupied Paris: in search of Commander Leduc] (in French). Le Monde. Archived from the original on August 13, 2024. Retrieved October 31, 2024.
^ Broussard, Philippe (August 14, 2024). "Sur les traces du photographe inconnu du Paris de l'Occupation : Renée Damien, la vendeuse du Printemps qui détestait les " Fritz "" [On the trail of the unknown photographer of occupied Paris: Renée Damien, the Printemps saleswoman who hated the “Fritzes”] (in French). Le Monde. Archived from the original on August 14, 2024. Retrieved October 31, 2024.
^ Hude, Albert (2020). Paris humilié, 1940-1941 : chronique photographique inédite en 101 clichés [Paris humiliated, 1940–1941: unpublished photo chronicle in 101 shots] (in French). Éditions du Petit Pavé. ISBN 2847126589. Retrieved November 1, 2024.