How many facts are there in the myth about the famous photographer: What is the truth in war?

The recordings are blurry.

Nevertheless, the eleven photographs that Robert Capa took on the beach in Normandy on June 6, 1944, the so-called D-Day, earned him the reputation of the most famous war photographer.

And 75 years after the end of World War II, they are among the images remembered around the world.

Kappa was the only photojournalist who went ashore with the American soldiers during that invasion.

He photographed them from behind as they stormed Omaha Beach, which was being defended by German troops.

Footage such as "Man in the Waves" shows soldiers up to their necks in water or seeking cover.

Daring and brave - but recently the origin of those photos and with it Kapa's reputation as a war photographer has been somewhat called into question.

Odyssey of a Hungarian Jew in Europe in the 30s

Robert Capa was born Endre Erno Friedman in Budapest in 1913 in a Jewish family of tailors. He was 18 years old when he was caught at demonstrations against the Horthy regime in 1931, and when, to avoid prison, he had to leave Hungary. He goes first to Vienna, then to Prague, and finally to Berlin, where he studied journalism and started photography. For a German newspaper, for example, he photographed Leon Trotsky while he was giving a speech in Copenhagen. After the Nazis took power in Germany in 1933, he fled first to Vienna and then to Paris. There he meets already renowned photographers and the talented photographer Gerta Pohorile, a German and also a Jew who will become his student and fiancee.

In order to succeed in selling their photos, they create a story about a rich American photographer living in Paris - Robert Capa. A few months later, when the editor discovers the fraud, he takes the name as his own, and Gerta has been Gerda Taro ever since. The two begin to make their way as photographers and in August 1936 they go to Spain where the civil war (1936-39) has begun.

Civil War in Spain

Capa and Taro are happy and in love, convinced that nothing can happen to them while they are together - because they survived the plane crash when landing in Barcelona with only scratches. They are establishing a new style of photojournalism - using small cameras to get close to the fights. His famous sentence reads: "If your pictures aren't good enough, then you're not close enough."

The two of them return to Paris after a successful job. However, Gerda Taro returns to Madrid in 1937, wishing to continue following the Republican's struggles. She died there doing her job. Robert Capa was deeply affected by the death of his fiancee and never married.

Gerda Taro (1.08.1910/26.07.1937/21 - XNUMX/XNUMX/XNUMX) was the first war photographer. Her big funeral in Paris was also a mass protest against fascism, led by Pablo Neruda and Louis Aragon. Many of her works have long been attributed to her partner, but that image is slowly changing in the XNUMXst century.

Going to America

In 1939, Robert Capa entered the United States with a tourist visa. He used his good contacts with journalists, photographers and authors to get a job. He started working for the famous "Life" magazine.

Kappa wanted exclusive photos and wanted to be a photojournalist during the Allied invasion of Normandy. Before D-Day he painted the fighting in North Africa and the Allied advance in Italy. The US military accepted him into the small circle of reporters for the planned D-Day, even though he was a citizen of Hungary, a country that was an ally of Nazi Germany.

D-Day - the plane was waiting for the photos

On D-Day, for the then 30-year-old Kap, it wasn't just about survival - he also had to meet an editorial deadline. Rolls of film had to arrive from the French coast to London, where the films were developed. One copy of the photos was for the London "Life", one for the British government, one for the Pentagon - where military censorship was carried out - and one for the headquarters of the magazine in New York, which also received negatives.

The plane was waiting to transfer the photos and negatives across the Atlantic where the descriptions were written for the photos that Kappa did not send. During this time, Kappa remained with the Allied troops advancing in Normandy.

Robert Capa was not the only war photographer of World War II, but his D-Day photos are some of the most famous images of the war. American General Dwight Eisenhower awarded him the "Medal of Freedom" in 1947 - along with 19 other war reporters.

Doubt in the details

However, the myth of the war photographer Robert Capa has often been questioned. For example, author Alan Douglas Coleman started a blog (capadday.com) in 2014 in which he and others try to reconstruct the events of D-Day. In short, the research-based criticism is that Capa arrived at Omaha Beach later than he said - namely, about an hour and a half after the so-called first wave, when the worst fighting was already over. Also, he allegedly didn't stay on the beach as long as he said he would.

It is also claimed that Capa took significantly fewer than the 106 photographs he claimed, probably only those eleven known shots. The story of the editorial team of "Life" magazine that a photo-lab technician in London accidentally destroyed the other films with heat is allegedly technically impossible.

John Morris, who was the longtime editor of Life magazine and was responsible for publishing the photos in the June 19, 1944 issue, said on CNN in November 2014 that there was apparently no footage on the three destroyed films. "Today I think it's entirely possible that Bob just packed up all his 35mm films and sent them to London, knowing that one of the rolls of film contained the images he took that morning," said Morris, who died in 2017. of what happened on June 6, 1944 at Omaha Beach is difficult and not yet complete. For example, it is not yet clear who the man in Robert Capa's most famous photograph, "Man in the Waves", allegedly recognized veterans Edward Reagan and Houston Riley.

Discussion on "Death of soldiers"

Capa's famous photograph "Death of a Soldier" from the Spanish Civil War was first discussed in the 70s. To this day, the question remains: was the picture real or was the death of the soldier at that moment simulated? What is certain is that Capa and Gerda Taro did not see themselves as neutral observers in the Spanish Civil War. The two sided with the republican troops and the people against Franco.

Irme Schaber, biographer of Gerda Taro, says: "The photograph 'The Death of a Soldier' ​​is a didactic piece of media history that raises questions that go beyond the photographer Kapp." This ongoing discourse is necessary and exciting, and ensures that this early photographic icon is instructively transferred into the digital age." In addition, and this applies to both examples, there remains a particularly difficult question - about truth in war and war.

The end of the war and Ingrid Bergman in destroyed Berlin

After the invasion of Normandy, on August 25, 1944, Kappa entered his beloved liberated Paris in a military jeep. In March 1945, near the German town of Wesel, some 100 km north of Cologne, Kappa jumped behind German enemy lines with American paratroopers. He did not photograph the Battle of Berlin. Kappa came to Berlin only after the end of the war, in the summer of 1945, and painted the liberated city and its people. Swedish Hollywood star Ingrid Bergman was also there, who was on tour in Europe, where she entertained American soldiers. The two had met two months earlier in Paris, and their love affair began that summer in devastated Berlin. Bergman had fallen deeply in love and wanted to leave her husband for him. In December 1945, Kappa went with her to Hollywood, but he didn't like it there. His quote is famous where he says: "I've never stepped into a bigger shithole than Hollywood."

Capa remained silent about this relationship with a married movie star, which ended in the summer of 1946, the public learned about it from Bergman.

A dream come true and death

After the Second World War, Capa, together with his photographer friends Henri Cartier-Bresson, David Seymour and George Roger, realized one of his big dreams and founded the Magnum photo agency, which is still one of the most famous. Kappa then photographed two more wars: the first Arab-Israeli war after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 - work that was very important to him - and the French war in Indochina (1946-1954).

It is said that Kapa always precisely decided which war he risked his life as a photographer for and which he did not. He actually didn't want to go to Indochina. Why he still left is unknown. It is assumed that he missed working in a wartime environment, but also that he needed money because Capa was an avid gambler, he loved poker. Maybe he wanted to restore his reputation as a war photographer, that's another thesis. On May 25, 1954, 40-year-old Kappa accompanied a French unit in action against communist Vietminh soldiers. He went a little sideways in the field and stepped on a mine. They say that the dead man was still holding a camera in his left hand.

"Robert Capa was a great artist and photographer"

Alex Kershaw, Robert Capa's biographer, says that the questions about his photographs do not change the fact that "they are the best pictures of D-Day and they are real". "They are fantastic," Kershaw told DW. This journalist and author says that it also doesn't change the fact that Robert Capa, one of the most famous war photographers, "was a great artist and photographer", a "rock star" of his time.

If he had the chance to meet him, he would ask him two questions: "Was it worth risking your life at the age of 40?" And: "What's it like when Ingrid Bergman is madly in love with you?"