Peace Pavilion During a Time of War

The world exhibition of 1937 in Paris was special. While the Civil War raged in Spain and Germany tested its new weapons of war, in Paris various countries exhibited their most beautiful, modern products. The Republican Spanish pavilion was next to the German one. Spain used the occasion to point to the German war crimes by showing Picasso's recently completed Guernica painting. On 9 July the Rassemblement Universel pour la Paix (World Peace Campaign) opened a peace pavilion among the other exhibits to draw attention to the peace-keeping tasks of the League of Nations.