Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Bergen, Dora. Paris 1945. First edition

Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Bergen, Dora. Paris 1945. First edition

Auschwitz Buchenwald Bergen Dora - A rare booklet containing 40 Drawings of harsh scenes from the death camps by a prisoner from the death camp Leon Delarbre, who created them while he was a prisoner, in hiding, risking his life countless times. MICHAEL DE ROMILLY publishing, Paris 1945 - First Edition.

Delarbre's works depict harsh events in a camp where he himself was present at the time of their occurrence. Delarbre drew in the camp while risking his life countless times, knowing that if he was caught, it might cost him his life. He drew at night in a hidden place while lying down, or sometimes hidden by prisoners who stood in front of him to conceal his work. Of course, there was no paper available to the prisoners in the camp. Delarbre searched and found that strips of paper surrounded the camp's sewage pipes. He tore off small pieces of paper from them, drew his drawings, and hid them in various places in the camp, passing them from place to place for months so that they would not be found by the SS soldiers. All the drawings were described and dated by Delarbre, and he even indicated next to each one its original size. During the liberation, when many prisoners were looking for something to eat to alleviate their hunger, Delarbre's attention was focused on one thing - preserving the drawings. He collected them from their hiding places in the camp, put them under his clothes, and boarded a wagon to take them out and away to a safe place as quickly as possible, thus preserving them for generations. Upon his return to Paris after the war, his drawings were acquired by the Museum of Modern Art. Two of his drawings appear in the permanent exhibition in Buchenwald.

Among the drawings: depiction of a group of prisoners lining up before being taken to forced labor in [January 1945], portraits of prisoners in Auschwitz in [May 1944], the stripping of prisoners' clothes upon their arrival at the camp on their way to "disinfection" in [Buchenwald 1944], prisoners being transported on a wooden wagon, a collapsed comrade during a lineup in Dora in [December 1944], the transportation of human skeletons to the crematorium in [Dora 1945], the face of a prisoner who went insane in [Buchenwald 1944], bodies of prisoners discovered in the morning in [Dora, March 1945], those sentenced to death by hanging, evacuation of bodies, and many other scenes that are hard to describe. The book begins with a self-portrait of the author that he drew upon his release from the camp on April 29, 1945.

The illustrator Leon Delarbre (1889-1974) French Artist, began his career as an artist at the National School of Fine Arts in Paris. He later became the curator of the art department at the French Museum in Belfort. He joined the French Resistance in 1941 and was arrested and held in several concentration camps. His drawings, which were made secretly on random pieces of paper during his work in the camp as an arms manufacturer, are some of the important works produced during World War II. Despite the harsh physical conditions, his drawings are considered accurate and reliable. Despite his difficult physical condition, he managed to smuggle his drawings with him to the Bergen-Belsen camp, where he was released by the Allies. After the war, he returned to his work at the French museum "Ecole de Beaux-Arts".

XII, 40 p. Very good condition.