Nicolas Muller: Refugees in Morocco, 1940s

Hungarian Jewish photographer Nicolas Muller studied Law and Political Science at the University of Szeged. Interested in photography at a young age, he became a member of the Miefhoe, the Jewish University Club, where he conversed with Hungarian writers, ethnologists, and fellow artists. In his early years, he experimented with portraiture and landscapes, focusing on the human impact on nature. As a documentary reporter, his career took him to Vienna, Paris, Portugal, and Tangier, his photographs appearing in global media. Known for expressive sobriety, his later works played with angles, photograph composition, and chiaroscuro contrasts, apparent in his portraits and street scenes. Eventually settling down in Spain, he exhibited his numerous works there and opened his studio as a venue for literary gatherings.

Muller was hired by JDC to document refugee activities sponsored by JDC in Tangier at the end of World War II. In addition to taking photographs of Jewish refugees leaving Tangier for Canada, Palestine, and France at the conclusion of the conflict, he also took snapshots of everyday life of Jewish refugees. Through the Comite d’Assistance aux Refugies, JDC-sponsored relief activities including small business loans, feeding programs, medical care, and the distribution of clothing and Passover matzah.