us-005578-irn47010
type: RecordSet
physical characterisitics and technical requirements: Print of an engraving of a black and white sketch depicting six prisoners with shaved heads wearing ragged, striped uniforms beside the camp’s main, snow covered gate in winter. The prisoners are arranged in a line to the left of the centered gate, with four of them standing at attention in right profile, their shoulders hunched, their gazes down, and their caps in their hands. The other two have fallen out of line and are lying sprawled, face down on the icy ground, with the “X” and “NN” markings visible on their backs. The gate is flanked by large vertical banners bearing the SS lightning bolts and barbed wire fencing with a skull and crossbones sign beside it. Behind and to the left of the gate is the guard tower, with a large clock on the front and a guard holding a rifle. The image is at the center of a tan, heavyweight piece of paper with a 1.250 inch wide border. Printed within the image, in black ink, is the print number in the upper left corner and the artist's signature on the lower right. (1 vol. 8 p.: 15 prints, ill.; 27.5 cm; undated)
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
date: 1944 April-1944 September
has beginning date: 1946-01-01
has end date: 1946-12-31
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had subject: 636
has record set type: Item
history: The print was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2012 by Theodore Feintuch, the cousin of Fred Hillman.
history: Henri Gayot (1904–1981) was born in Panilleuse, France. His father was a veteran of World War I (1914-1918) and both parents were teachers. Henri obtained a degree as an art teacher in 1930. He taught at Fromentin Normal School in La Rochelle, where he lived with his wife and two sons. On September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, and France declared war on Germany. Henri was mobilized into the French Army and became a lieutenant in the regiment of Senegalese riflemen. On May 10, 1940, France was invaded by Germany. France capitulated and signed an armistice on June 22. Henri was taken prisoner in Saint-Die on June 22. He was transported to Oflag XVIIA, a prisoner of war camp for officers in Moravia. While interned, he made sketches with chewed tobacco. He was released in April 1942, partly due to his asthma. He returned to La Rochelle. Under the terms of the armistice, Germany annexed Alsace-Lorraine. The German Army occupied northern and western France, and placed the region under the leadership of a military commander. Henri joined the French resistance group Honneur et Patrie [Honor and Homeland], sometimes using the pseudonym Le Normand. He became head of the information division. On September 19, 1943, Henri was arrested and imprisoned in Lafond. He was transferred to Fort du Ha, and then put on trial with a group of suspected resistance members by a German military court in Bordeaux. Nearly all were convicted and over twenty were executed in January 1944. Henri was imprisoned in Fresnes until April 6, 1944, when he was transferred to Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp. The camp had been constructed in May 1941, 35 miles southwest of Strasbourg, in Alsace, near the German border. Many of the prisoners in Natzweiler were members of resistance movements in German-occupied nations, and were sent there as part of the Nacht und Nebel [Night and Fog] operation launched by the Germans to quell growing anti-German resistance. People suspected of being in the …
identifier: irn47010
record resource extent: overall: Height: 10.250 inches (26.035 cm) | Width: 13.375 inches (33.973 cm)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: Print reproduction of a sketch, from a set of fifteen, depicting a guard watching six individual prisoners being punished by standing outside in the snow and cold until they collapse at Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp in France, and published in 1946. A few of the prisoners are identified with NN (Nacht und Nebel [night and fog]) on their uniforms. The sketches were originally created in secret in the camp by Henri Gayot and the published set includes an introduction by Roger LaPorte: both members of the French resistance and prisoners in Natzweiler. Both men were marked “Nacht and Nebel”, individuals presenting a threat to German security that had been abducted in the middle of the night and were meant to be “vanished” in the camps. LaPorte was arrested by the German Sipo in February 1943 and detained as a political prisoner in several prisons then transferred to Natzweiler in July. Gayot was arrested by the Germans and sent to Natzweiler in the spring of 1944. As Allied Forces advanced on the main camp in September, it was evacuated and the prisoners were sent to concentration camps in Germany. Gayot and LaPorte were both sent to Dachau and later liberated by US troops in April 1945. The portfolio of prints was acquired by Manfred Hillmann, another Natzweiler prisoner. Manfred (later Fred) and his father, Hermann, were deported from Chemnitz, Germany, to Poland in October 1938. In June 1939, Manfred was arrested by the Gestapo. After Germany invaded Poland on September 1, Manfred was transferred to Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. Manfred was sent to Natzweiler in March 1942, and in December, he was deported to Auschwitz III (Monowitz) in German-occupied Poland. The camp was evacuated in January 1945, and Manfred was transferred to Gross Rosen in Germany, and then Buchenwald where he was liberated by US troops. He learned that his parents and brothers were killed in Belzec killing center in April 1942.
title: The stake Print 10 from a set of reproduced sketches by a French artist and concentration camp prisoner