Category: Occupied Paris

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Picasso’s Wartime Man Cave

One of the biggest disappointments of our recent trip to Paris was the inability to visit Picasso’s apartment studio where he lived and worked for almost twenty years including the entire four years of the German occupation. There are numerous photos of Picasso in the apartment and I was hoping to be able to present them to you along with contemporary images. Oh well—hopefully the building owners and the French government can work something out to allow visitors to the attic apartment (more on this later).

Despite an exodus of artists and gallery owners prior to the Germans entering Paris on 14 June 1940 and numerous offers to sponsor him in America, Pablo Picasso decided to remain in Paris. To this day, the real reason for why he stayed is unknown and can only be speculated.

There were three primary reasons why Picasso might have considered leaving France and conversely, reasons to be worried about his safety while remaining in Paris. First, the Nazis had declared his work to be “degenerate” art and eventually destroyed many of his paintings. Second, Picasso supported the Republican cause during the Spanish Civil War and as such, was an opponent of fascism and Hitler. Third, Picasso was suspected of being a Communist or at least having Communist sympathies. The one thing he did have in his favor was an international reputation that may have protected him. Learn more here.

Picasso was kept under constant surveillance during the occupation. German officers would visit him in his attic apartment−studio, and “hideout” at 7, rue des Grands Augustins (aka Grenier des Grands Augustins) in the Left Bank’s sixth district. Sometimes the Gestapo visits were to interrogate him. Other visits were by German officers wanting to meet and talk with the world-famous painter.

7, rue des Grands Augustins. Photo by Mbzt (6 January 2012). PD-Creative Commons Attribution 3.0. Wikimedia Commons.
7, rue des Grands Augustins. Photo by Mbzt (6 January 2012). PD-Creative Commons Attribution 3.0. Wikimedia Commons.

Let’s Meet Pablo Picasso

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Hitler’s Commando Order

During the late summer and early fall of 1942, two relatively obscure Allied commando raids led an enraged Hitler to issue an order that directly violated the rights of the wounded and prisoners of war under the “1929 Geneva Convention for Prisoners of War.” The aftermath of the order resulted in the executions of hundreds of Allied soldiers, the post-war executions of the German officers who carried out Hitler’s orders, and cited as evidence for war crimes in the trial of the Nazi leadership at Nuremberg.

Two Minor Raids 

Shortly after the August 1942 raid on Dieppe, France, a copy of Allied operating orders fell into Hitler’s possession. The orders called for the binding of prisoners. When Hitler was told that German prisoners were found shot with their hands tied he went into a rage. Two months later, British commandos were dropped onto the German occupied island of Sark for the purpose of reconnaissance and to capture some soldiers for interrogation. Unfortunately, four of the five German prisoners the commandos captured were killed before being sent to London. The official German account was that the soldiers’ hands were tied when shot. This put Hitler over the top and several days later, he ordered Allied prisoners to be shackled.

Three days after the raid on Sark, Hitler issued the following communique to the Wehrmacht:

“In future, all terror and sabotage troops of the British and their accomplices, who do not act like soldiers but rather like bandits, will be treated as such by the German troops and will be ruthlessly eliminated in battle, wherever they appear.”

Kommandobefehl or the Commando Order

On October 18, 1942, Hitler issued the Kommandobefehl or Commando Order. The order was to execute any Allied commando prisoner caught in the act of a raid, sabotage, or acting as a foreign agent even if they were in military uniform. This was in direct violation of the Geneva Convention and the Nazis knew it. Read More Hitler’s Commando Order