Rare Holocaust photos of the 'Green Ticket' roundup exhibited at Shoah Memorial

The Shoah Memorial in Paris is exhibiting 98 recently rediscovered photographs documenting the first mass arrest of Jews in Paris on May 14, 1941, known as the 'Green Ticket' roundup. The images, taken by German Propaganda Kompanie photographer Harry Croner, show intimate moments such as a couple sharing a final kiss before separation, families waiting outside the Japy gymnasium, and the faces of victims. The photos were found in 2020 by collectors Gil Bourdeaux and Jean-Baptiste Ordas on five contact sheets acquired from an anonymous photographer. The exhibition, titled 'Images de la rafle du "billet vert", une découverte exceptionnelle pour l'histoire,' runs at the Shoah Memorial. Curator Lior Lalieu and historian Jean-Marc Dreyfus, co-authors of a book on the photos, have identified six individuals so far, including Frymeta Chmielnicki and Jeanne, Ida, and Maurice Rubinstein. Croner, who later was persecuted as a half-Jew and interned, never spoke of his wartime work. The photos offer a human perspective on a little-known event, contrasting with propaganda images.