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David Olère
Olère was a Polish born French Jew who in early spring 1943, was transported to Auschwitz aboard Transport 49, one of around 1,000 people sent from the Drancy camp in Paris. Earlier that year, he had been arrested by French police in Seine-et-Oise. Of the thousand people on the transport, nearly 90% were murdered almost immediately after arriving at Auschwitz-II Birkenau. Only 119 prisoners were detailed to work, such was the poor physical condition of those who arrived at the camp. Olère, aged 41 at the time, was issued prisoner number 106,144 (main series of numbers issued to male inmates) and detailed to the horrific Sonderkommando ("Special Unit/Work Detail Group") that was comprised of Jewish inmates at Birkenau. Duties of the Sonderkommando included the removal of the corpses from the gas chamber following the murder process. Cleaning and preparing the chamber for the next mass murder and burning the dead were also among the arduous tasks of the "Special detail".
Earlier Life
Born in Warsaw during January 1902, Olère studied art in the city before moving to Danzig (Gdansk), then later, Berlin and eventually, Paris. He worked as a set builder for a European film studio, before designing artwork and costumes for Paramount and Fox Pictures. In 1930, David Olère was married to Juliette Ventura, later having a child (son, Alexandre). When war broke out, he was drafted and served in an infantry regiment.
Birkenau, Sonderkommando
At Birkenau, Olère and the other members of his Sonderkommando were detailed initially to Krematorium-II, then later moved to the similar facility known as Krematorium-III (Note, in KZ terminology, "Krematorium" related to the entire mass murder facility, i.e. the undressing room, gas chamber and finally, crematorium section, not the furnace sector alone). The Auschwitz-Birkenau site eventually established four major mass murder facilities, known as Krematoria-II, III, IV and V. Numbers IV and V were smaller facilities than II and III, which were the largest gas chambers established anywhere in the entire KZ system. Krematorium-I was located at the Stammlager (main camp), i.e. Auschwitz-I. Due to his artistic skill, Olère was also forced to work as an illustrator, decorating letters and drawing sketches for members of the SS staff at Auschwitz.
Evacuation, Liberation and Aftermath
Olère remained at Auschwitz-Birkenau until mid-January 1945, when he was among those forced on the death march headed south, to Mauthausen in Austria. Having spent periods of time through late winter and early spring 1945 in two of the Mauthausen sub-camps, namely, Melk and Ebensee, Olère was eventually liberated in early May 1945. Soon after, he learned that he had lost his entire Polish based family, all of whom had been murdered in occupied Warsaw. Later, he moved back to Paris. Just prior to leaving Auschwitz, with the attention of the SS staff becoming less of a concern due to their evacuation preparations, Olère began to draw what would later be regarded as substantially valuable documentation of what actually happened within the gas chambers of Auschwitz. As the only surviving artist detailed in the Sonderkommando, he was able to accurately portray plans of how the killing facilities functioned. Among the details of his work, the artist often chose to place himself, as witness, to the horrors he saw within the living hell that was the extermination site known as Auschwitz.
Exhibitions and Legacy
The work of David Olère was exhibited at the State Exhibitions Museum of Les Invalides and the Grand Palais in Paris, as well as Jewish Museum NYC and the Berkeley in Chicago. He retired in the 1960s, passing away at the age of 83 in Paris during the summer of 1985. His wife and son continued to educate the world through his work for many years. Recently, the Auschwitz Museum acquired 18 works by David Olère, the largest collection of such material. Many sketches and other works by the artist reside at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, private collections and the Lohamei Hagetaot kibbutz in northern Israel. A temporary exhibition of the work is scheduled for display in 2018.
Links
Below are two recently posted website features addressing the works of David Olère. Both contain images of his work depicting the scenes he bore witness to, at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The iconic parachute qualification wings, three examples of the WWII issued types, all a different variation.
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Cheers,
Steve.
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