Jazz and the Nazis in Paris 1940 - 1944

bohemewarbler

I think this article Jazz and the Nazis in Paris 1940 - 1944, much of it related to Django Reinhardt, is worth posting on the forum for its interesting reading, photos and videos, not so much as a item for discussion, although I'm not holding anyone back from discussing it. It's just that there are past threads on this forum debating whether or not the jazz musicians of Paris were collaborating with the Nazis by performing their music. Personally, I'd rather not see this thread go in that direction, but that the reader will find it interesting on its own merits.

http://fromthebarrelhouse.com/2012/11/09/jazz-and-the-nazis-in-paris-1940-1944/

crookedpinky

Interesting post and I share your hope it doesn't go down the "were they weren't they" collaborating route.

scot

Interesting photos and illustrations to be sure, and he did do some research on the subject, but it's mostly a hipster/rebel rehash - nothing new here. I agree that there is no point in discussing "collaboration" as that is far too complex a subject to cover on an internet blog. For anyone interested, the best book I have found on general collaboration in Paris is "French and Germans, Germans and French" by Richard Cobb. As I might have pointed out here before, people do all sorts of things in an occupied city for all sorts of reasons, many of them you might never consider. The film "Chantons sous l'Occupation" which covers the collaboration issue in popular culture can now be seen on the internet at ina.fr. It gives the views of many different people who were actually there.

To put things in a brief but generally proper perspective, one need only look at the size of Django's wartime discography. In fact, jazz was generally tolerated in all the western occupied countries, and the only jazz musician I have ever been able to affirm was murdered by the nazis was Georges Effrosse and he met his fate because he was Jewish, not because he was a jazz musician.

This is a very complicated subject!

Russell Letson

A quick scan of the article shows no mention of Mike Zwerin's 1985 book on the period, La Tristesse de Saint Louis. (And I see that the 2000 Swing Under the Nazis edition is enlarged--I'll have to go looking for it.)

scot

It's essential reading because Mike Zwerin went looking to prove things that he assumed were true, and when he was confronted with facts that contradicted his assumptions, instead of denouncing those facts as lies, he dug deeper. This book took real backbone to write and publish.

Micheal Irwin

Fascinating read. My wife and I were just in Paris a few weeks ago. The Nazi occupation of Paris seemed surreal to imagine. And really not that long ago.

Buco

People often lament about Django's early passing but imagine if that officer assigned to interrogate him upon his escape attempt wasn't a jazz fan and, as I read elsewhere, recognized Django and decided to let him go?