Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Bergen Belsen - illustrations from camps, Paris, 1945. First Edition

Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Bergen Belsen - illustrations from camps, Paris, 1945. First Edition

DORA AUSCHWITZ, BUCHENWALD BERGEN -BELSEN Illustrations of scenes in the death camps by the prisoner LEON DELARBRE. MICHAEL DE ROMILLY publishing, Paris, 1945. First edition.

Illustrator LEON DELARBRE (1889-1974) French painter. Began his career as an artist at the School of art in Paris. Later he curated the art department at the French Museum in Balfour. Joined the French resistance in 1941. After being caught, he was held in several concentration camps. During his stay in the camps, he made sketches of scenes from camp life using pencils and paper he bought at a high price. His drawings, which were secretly made on random pieces of paper while working in the camp as a manufacturer of weapons, are among the most important works done during World War II. 

Among other things, Delarbre painted the soldiers of the Sonderkommando while collecting dead bodies at the risk of his own life. These paintings are reliable and accurate, although they were made in difficult body conditions. His paintings depict and describe descriptions of the daily order, those sentenced to death by hanging, the evacuation of bodies, the sight of the camp, and more. Despite his difficult physical condition, he succeeded in preserving his paintings and transferring them to the Bergen-Belsen camp where he was liberated by the Allies. Upon his return to Paris after the war his paintings were purchased by the Museum of Modern Art. Two of his paintings appear in the permanent exhibition in Buchenwald. At the beginning of the book is the portrait of the author who painted when he was liberated from the camp on April 29, 1945. After the war, he returned to his work at the French museum of l’Ecole des Beaux-Arts.

XII, 40 p. fine condition.