Gerda Taro was born Gerda Pohorylle and was fleeing Nazi Germany when she met a young Hungarian in Montparnasse. They invented two noms de guerre to place their pictures with newspapers that preferred Americans to refugees: he became Robert Capa, she Gerda Taro. She covered the Spanish Civil War on her own and was killed at twenty-six, crushed by a tank at Brunete.
The story
Gerda Pohorylle was born in Stuttgart on 1 August 1910, into a Polish Jewish family. An activist, arrested by the Nazis, she fled Germany in 1933 and met the following year, in Montparnasse, a young Hungarian named Endre Friedmann.
Together they invented two names for the war: he became Robert Capa, she Gerda Taro. The pseudonyms served first of all to sell photographs to picture editors who preferred Americans to refugees.
They covered the Spanish war on the Republican side. She was soon working alone there, for the paper “Ce soir”: the fighting, the bombing of Valencia, women learning to shoot. She was twenty-six, and the first woman press photographer to work on a front.
On 25 July 1937, at the battle of Brunete, a tank crushed her as the line pulled back. She died the next day in hospital — the first woman war photographer killed doing the job.
Her funeral, on 1 August 1937 — her twenty-seventh birthday — drew an immense crowd. Giacometti carved a Horus falcon for her grave. In 1942 the Nazis had the inscription erased; a plaque put up since restores her name, her trade and the date of her death.
The grave
The grave bears a sculpture of a Horus falcon attributed to Alberto Giacometti, unsigned — one of the sculptor's rare works at Père-Lachaise. Its history is one of erasure: in 1942, the Nazis had the original inscription struck out. Two texts coexist today, and they do not agree. The stele reads “Gerda Taro, 1911-1937”; the commemorative plaque added later restores the truth and the profession: “Gerda Taro, 1910-1937, photo-reporter for Ce soir, killed on 25 July 1937 on the Brunete front, in Spain, in the exercise of her profession.”
On site, do not miss
Giacometti's falcon, then the two birth dates that contradict each other: 1911 on the stele, 1910 on the plaque.
Visitors' questions
Where is Gerda Taro's grave?
In Division 97, avenue Circulaire, second row — the Division of Maurice Thorez, Paul Éluard and Henri Barbusse's stele. A sculpture of the falcon Horus, by Giacometti, stands on top.
Henri BarbusseHow did she die?
Crushed by a tank on 25 July 1937, during the battle of Brunete, in Spain, as she was withdrawing from the front. She died the next day in hospital, at twenty-six, while covering the war for the newspaper “Ce soir”.
Paul ÉluardIs it true that the Nazis erased her name?
Yes, in 1942: the grave's original inscription was scratched out. A commemorative plaque added since has restored her name, her profession of photo-reporter and the date of her death on the Brunete front.
Maurice ThorezWhat was her connection with Robert Capa?
Together they invented their two pseudonyms in Montparnasse: Endre Friedmann became Robert Capa, and Gerda Pohorylle became Gerda Taro. They covered the Spanish Civil War together before she went to work alone.
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