Playlist: The Civilians' Story: Albert Kahn's Archive of the
In addition to documenting the Great War itself, Albert Kahn’s team of photographers recorded the impact of the conflict on French civilian life. This program examines offerings from Kahn’s Archive of the Planet, exploring both the propaganda value and the genuine emotional power in images of the war-torn French populace. French and Belgian refugees, ruined churches, and farms tended by women and the elderly are a few of the subjects rendered in exquisite and moving detail. Soissons smolders after a German retreat; Reims and its shattered cathedral hover on the edge of total destruction; and the Alsace region, Kahn’s birthplace, regains its French identity. A BBC/Musée Albert-Kahn (Département des Hauts-de-Seine—France) Co-production. (52 minutes)
French financier Albert Kahn sets out to photograph the daily life of people around the world. In 1914, his cameras focus on the War when Germany declares war on France.
Germany's invasion of northern France causes thousands of refugees to flee to Paris. They soon realize that the German army is very close to Paris itself. Rich Parisians flee the city.
Albert Kahn negotiates with the military to get his cameras as close to the front lines as possible. The images depicting the barbarity of Germany's army shock the world.
Albert Kahn's photographers bring images of the most dreadful aspects of the War to Paris to the most learned parts of the population.
Albert Kahn photographs unoccupied France coping in the shadow of war. His images of rural life are at the heart of his Archive of the Planet. Without men and animals, women and the elderly work the fields.
Refugees of occupied were repatriated through Switzerland and through Evian, France. Tensions rose among refugees and locals. At Verdun, 400,000 lose their lives. Germans destroy Reims Cathedral.
The city of Reims and its cathedral endured 1000 days of German shelling. Photographs of children illustrate the tragedy of the present and hope of the future for the people of Reims.
By 1917, most of the population of Reims had fled. Those who remained had opportunities for profit making. Food prices inflated, often beyond what soldiers could pay.
Soissons had been on the front line for 3 years. The hospital receives 100,000 wounded within one week during the French offensive. Over 60,000 women volunteer to be nurses.
The French partly overtake Alsace, Albert Kahn's birthplace. At his mansion, Kahn entertains the French elite. He shows them images of France under fire. They donate to charity to help victims of war.
To achieve victory, France needed weapons. Factories need recruits, and for the first time, women enter the factories to work. Food is in short supply. In April 1917, the USA declares war on Germany.
By 1918, France has suffered unprecedented destruction. Germany threatens Paris with "Big Bertha," a gun that could fire 70 km with accuracy. Would Paris survive?
After four years of bloodshed, German resolve is broken. An armistice is declared. Church bells in France herald a new era of peace. Archival film captures the chaos of celebration.
At the end of the War to end all wars, thousands upon thousands of men do not come home. Widows are in tears. Albert Kahn unwittingly becomes the chronicler of the biggest devastation since the French Revolution.