Raoul Minot

Raoul Minot (28 September 1893 – 28 April 1945) was a French amateur photographer who was imprisoned in France and deported to Nazi concentration camps for his clandestine photography in occupied Paris in World War II. He survived internment but died in Germany soon after his liberation.

Minot emerged from obscurity in the summer of 2024 as a result of a four-year investigation by Le Monde journalist Philippe Broussard around the discovery of Minot's anonymous prints.

Early life Raoul Minot was born on 28 September 1893, in Montluçon, France. In March 1911, he was hired as a scarf vendor in the Parisian department store Printemps. In 1914, he was mobilized for World War I, during which he earned the Croix de guerre with bronze star.

In November 1942, an unnamed informant denounced Minot's activities to the Nazi occupation.

When Minot was arrested, many of his photos and materials were seized by the French police, and the photographic works of his unique genre went unknown for several decades. On 17 October 1943, he was transferred to Buchenwald, where he was used as forced labor.

In 2020, another batch of 117 photos saved by Renée Damien, a colleague of Minot, were published in a book by Albert Hude titled Paris humilié, 1940–1941, Chronique photographique inédite en 101 clichés.

Also in 2020, photo album collector Stéphanie Colaux found in a flea market in Barjac, Gard, an album with photos from the Nazi occupation of Paris between 1940 and 1942. Aware of their historical importance, she reached out to Le Monde newspaper about her find, and the newspaper proceeded to investigate the source of the photos. In August 2024, the newspaper published a series of five articles by Philippe Broussard detailing the results of the investigation, identifying Minot as the photographer, and surmising that he may have had accomplices. Otherwise, the provenance of the album found at the flea market remains a mystery.

All of Minot's known photos were numbered, and many were embellished with his caustic comments about the German occupiers, some of which were erased. These photos show Paris and her closest suburbs between 1940 and 1942, particularly German soldiers in the capital, military equipment, buildings, deserted streets, civilians queuing for rations, propaganda leaflets, and anti-German inscriptions.

On 11 September 2024, the National Office for Veterans and Victims of War declared Minot a Mort pour la France, a title reserved for honored war dead.