Robert Capa

About five minutes later, Mecklin and Lucas heard an explosion; Capa had stepped on a landmine. When they arrived on the scene, he was still alive but his left leg had been blown to pieces, and he had a serious wound in his chest. Mecklin called for a medic and Capa was taken to a small field hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

He was born into a Jewish family in Budapest. His parents were tailors. At the age of 18, first he settled down in Vienna, later relocated to Prague and finally in Berlin. He started his studies in journalism at the German Political College but he was not allowed to continue them because he was Jewish. He settled down in Paris, where he adopted the name ’Robert Capa’ in 1934. At that time, he had already been a hobby-photographer. In 1934 "André Friedman", as he called himself at that time, met Gerda Pohorylle, a German Jewish refugee. The couple lived in Paris where André taught Gerda photography. Together they contrived the name and image of "Robert Capa" as a famous American photographer. Gerda took the name Gerda Taro, becoming successful in her own right. She travelled with Capa to Spain in 1936 with the intention to document the Spanish Civil War. In July 1937 Capa went on a short business trip to Paris while Gerda remained in Madrid. Read Less