The nineteenth-century basilica Notre-Dame de la Garde, perched above the Old Port on Marseille’s highest natural point, can be seen in the background. During World War II, the Old Port had been badly damaged, first by Italian and then German bombing. It was destroyed in a collaborative effort between the Nazis and the Vichy regime; French police expelled 30,000 people from the neighborhood before it was dynamited, and hundreds of Jews were deported to concentration camps.

For all uses of photographs by Roman Vishniac contact ICP at: vishniac_archive@icp.org.