Overview
- Brief Narrative
- Print of a drawing originally created by Henri Gayot, a French resistance member imprisoned in Struthof concentration camp in France.
- Title
- Struthof Natzweiler
- Geography
-
depiction:
Struthof (Concentration camp);
Natzwiller (France)
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Liliane Yates
- Contributor
-
Artist:
Henri Gayot
- Biography
-
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 resistance were arrested and then disappeared, with no notification to their families. Henri was assigned prisoner number 11784. Drawing was forbidden, but Henri created sketches depicting the atrocities of daily life in the camp. The inmates worked under dangerous conditions in quarries, disease was prevalent, food rations were meager, and the guards were often violent. The main camp at Natzweiler was evacuated in early September 1944, due to the advance of Allied Forces who had liberated Paris on August 25. The prisoners were deported by train to concentration camps in Germany. Henri was sent to Dachau concentration camp which was liberated by US troops on April 30, 1945. Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945. Henri was able to return to France in late May, 1945.
An edition of his works was published in France shortly after the war. Henri returned to teaching. He testified about the brutality of the camps at war crimes trials in the 1940s and 1950s. He wrote a history of the war, “Occupation, Resistance, Liberation in Charente-Maritime” published by the History Committee of the Second World War in 1973. Henri also designed the monument to the Resistance and Free French forces that was erected on the renamed Square Gayot in La Rochelle.
Physical Details
- Classification
-
Art
- Category
-
Prints
- Object Type
-
Prints (lcsh)
- Physical Description
- Folio of prints. One piece of paper folded to form a case. Printed on front is the image of concentration camp prisoner hung by the neck in the middle ground. Camp buildings in background. Skill and crossbones in fore ground. "Le Strut huf / Natzwilld"
- Dimensions
- overall: Height: 13.750 inches (34.925 cm) | Width: 10.500 inches (26.67 cm)
- Materials
- overall : paper, ink
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- No restrictions on access
Keywords & Subjects
- Personal Name
- Gayot, Henry, 1904-1981.
- Corporate Name
- Struthof (Concentration camp)
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The print was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1990 by Liliane Yates.
- Record last modified:
- 2024-10-03 13:11:03
- This page:
- http://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn2514
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Also in Liliane Yates collection
The collection consists of photographs and prints depiting the life in the concentration camps and liberation.
Concentration camp liberation photographs
Document
Contains photographs of various concentration camps, taken shortly after liberations. Scenes show corpses, surviving prisoners and living conditions in the camps. The camps and locations represented include Bergen-Belsen, Dortmund, Gardelegen, Struthof, Penig, and Vaihingen. Some photographs are captioned in French.
Object
Print of a drawing originally created by Henri Gayot, a French resistance member imprisoned in Struthof concentration camp in France.
Object
Print of a drawing originally created by Henri Gayot, a French resistance member imprisoned in Struthof concentration camp in France.
Object
Print of a drawing originally created by Henri Gayot, a French resistance member imprisoned in Struthof concentration camp in France.
Object
Print of a drawing originally created by Henri Gayot, a French resistance member imprisoned in Struthof concentration camp in France.
Object
Print of a drawing originally created by Henri Gayot, a French resistance member imprisoned in Struthof concentration camp in France.
Object
Print of a drawing originally created by Henri Gayot, a French resistance member imprisoned in Struthof concentration camp in France.
Object
Print of a drawing originally created by Henri Gayot, a French resistance member imprisoned in Struthof concentration camp in France.
Object
Print of a drawing originally created by Henri Gayot, a French resistance member imprisoned in Struthof concentration camp in France.
Object
Print of a drawing originally created by Henri Gayot, a French resistance member imprisoned in Struthof concentration camp in France.
Object
Print of a drawing originally created by Henri Gayot, a French resistance member imprisoned in Struthof concentration camp in France.
Object
Print of a drawing originally created by Henri Gayot, a French resistance member imprisoned in Struthof concentration camp in France.
Object
Print of a drawing originally created by Henri Gayot, a French resistance member imprisoned in Struthof concentration camp in France.
Object
Print of a drawing originally created by Henri Gayot, a French resistance member imprisoned in Struthof concentration camp in France.
Object
Print of a drawing originally created by Henri Gayot, a French resistance member imprisoned in Struthof concentration camp in France.
Object
Print of a drawing originally created by Henri Gayot, a French resistance member imprisoned in Struthof concentration camp in France.
Object
Print of a drawing originally created by Henri Gayot, a French resistance member imprisoned in Struthof concentration camp in France.