Foreword

Even if the exhibition is limited to the camps of Dachau and Falkenau (satellite de Flossenburg), it is, nevertheless, likely to make the public understand les conditions dans lesquelles le cameramen a dû travailler. To set up their teams, John Ford and George Stevens chose experienced professional cameramen or cameramen who had been specially formed for this occasion.

C’est l’histoire de ces trois grands réalisateurs que nous voulons raconter dans cette exposition; des gens dont la vie a été drastiquement bouleversée par les terribles actes de violence de la Seconde Guerre mondiale et leur rencontre avec les victimes des "atrocités nazies". To complete the impact of the pictures, Jean-François St venin is reading texts by John Ford and Joseph Kessel.

It is the first time that the pictures of the camp of Dachau are displayed in the chronological sequence they have been shot. They are backed up by the caption sheets filled in by the cameramen and the reports written by one of the writers Stevens had recruited. Excerpts from these stories are read by Mathieu Amalric pour accompagner les photos. This whole documentary allows the spectator of today to sit in his right place, far from the cameramen whose gestures and comments are thus brought to a new life.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Lilly Library (Indiana University, Bloomington), and Christa Fuller, George Stevens Jr., and Jerry Rudes, ont tous été extrêmement utiles; grâce à leur collaboration, le Mémorial peut montrer pour la première fois en France, a collection for the most never seen before: a montage of library documents, films and pictures. These documents will allow us to share, almost day after day, an experience in the real life, and this experience will be passed on, as a legacy, to the future generations.

Christian Delage, curator of the exhibition.