Liberation of Paris
The last mural in the series is the Liberation of Paris August 25, 1944. This mural is an attempt at summing up the series of murals. It’s partly homage to the Americans who liberated France, but it’s also a critique of the French myth that they liberated Paris. De Gaulle and the Free French forces were on the side of the Allies, but the Jews of France cannot forget that the French police were as dangerous as the Nazis. The painting is celebratory; it takes the form of a proscenium stage with Parisian statues relating to America forming the arch. The Liberation parade down the Champs Elysee with De Gaulle in the lead occupies the top two feet. Immediately below that are pictures of forty French Jewish children standing in for the 4,000 children who were rounded up in the Vel d’Hiv raid and never came back. In center stage is a faded picture of dead bodies from a concentration camp. The inscription is a bit of graffiti photographed by Varian Fry in Marseilles written on the wall by the French Resistance, which warns people “Pensez et agissez Francais,” (Think and act French). At least the way the French ought to act.
# 7. Liberation of Paris August 25, 1944 2007 10’ X 30‘ Mixed Media on Canvas