PARIS GALLERY EXHIBIT REVEALS GALLERY USED AS NAZI WORK CAMP

Paris photo exhibit exposes Nazi past of gallery building (JTA)
PARIS (JTA) – A Paris gallery is showing a photo exhibit which reveals the World War II use of its building: It was a Nazi work camp.Between July 1943 and August 1944, the old building on St. Martin St. was confiscated by the Nazis and used as a work camp for Jews who eventually would be sent to their deaths at Auschwitz or other camps.

These Jews, selected from the Drancy detention center -- a major transit point for those captured by the Nazis -- would sort through material confiscated by the Nazis from Jewish apartments in Paris and pack them into boxes. The belongings were sent to Germany.One of three small work camps in Paris, it housed 800 to 1,000 people. Today, the building houses the Passage du Desir gallery and the fashionable BETC Euro RSCG advertising and marketing agency.On April 18, the gallery opened a monthlong exhibit of photographs on the work camp in the building.