David Olère, the illustrator of the Auschwitz horror

inside the gas chambers

David Olère (1902 – 1985) was a Polish-born French painter and sculptor best known for his explicit drawings and paintings based on his experiences as Jewish Sonderkommando inmate at Auschwitz concentration campduring World War II.

On February 20, 1943, Olère was arrested by French police during a round up of Jews in Seine-et-Oise and placed in Drancy internment camp. On March 2, 1943, he was one of approximately 1,000 Jews deported from Drancy to Auschwitz. From this transport, Olere was one of 119 people selected for work; the rest were gassed shortly after arrival. He was registered as prisoner 106144 and assigned to the Sonderkommando at Birkenau, the unit of prisoners forced to empty gas chambers and burn the bodies, firstly working in Bunker 2 and later in Crematorium III. In addition to these duties, he was also forced to work as an illustrator, writing and decorating letters for the SS.

throwing alive babies in furnaces

Olère remained at Auschwitz until January 19, 1945, when he was taken on the evacuation death march, eventually reaching Mauthausen concentration camp, then the Melk and Ebensee subcamps, from which he made five unsuccessful escape attempts. Following his liberation on May 6, 1945, he learned that his entire family had been exterminated in Warsaw. He subsequently moved back to Paris.

Olère began to draw at Auschwitz during the last days of the camp, when the SS became less attentive. His work has exceptional documentary value: there are no photos of what happened in the gas chambers and crematoria, and Olère was the only artist to have worked as a member of the Sonderkommando and survived. He was also the first witness to draw plans and cross-sections to explain how the crematoria worked.

Olère felt compelled to capture Auschwitz artistically to illustrate the fate of all those that did not survive. He sometimes depicts himself in his paintings as a ghostly witnessing face in the background. He exhibited his work at the State Museum of Les Invalidesand the Grand Palais in Paris, at the Jewish Museum in New York City, at the Berkeley Museum, and in Chicago. He retired from being an artist in 1962, and died in 1985. His widow and son have continued to inform the world about Auschwitz via his artwork.

The ten thousand martyrs of Mount Ararat

Vittore Carpaccio (1515)

The ten thousand martyrs of Mount Ararat were, according to a medieval legend, Roman soldiers who, led by Saint Acacius, converted to Christianity and were crucified on Mount Ararat in Armenia by order of the Roman emperor. The story is attributed to the ninth century scholar Anastasius Bibliothecarius. In the Roman Catholic Church the martyrs are commemorated on March 18and June 22,according to entries in the Roman Martyrology. In the Greek Orthodox Church the Great Synaxaristes has a reference on June 1 for the "The Holy Ten Thousand Martyrs" in Antiochia, under the Roman Emperor Decius. Despite its questionable veracity, the event was extremely popular in Renaissance art, as seen for example in the painting 10,000 martyrs of Mount Ararat by the Venetian artist Vittore Carpaccio, or in the Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand by the German artist Albrecht Dürer.

The Grandes Heures of Anne of Brittany (1503-1508) illustrated by Jean Bourdichon

Albrecht Dürer (1508)

Ling Chi: Death by a thousand cuts

JOSÉ GUTIÉRREZ SOLANA (1886-1945)

"SUPLICIO CHINO"

Ling Chi, or Slow slicing, or the lingering death, or death by a thousand cuts , was a form of execution used in China from roughly AD 900 until its abolition in 1905. In this form of execution, the condemned person was killed by using a knife to methodically remove portions of the body over an extended period of time. The term língchí derives from a classical description of ascending a mountain slowly. Lingchi was reserved for crimes viewed as especially severe, such as treason and killing one's parents. It was meted out for offenses against the Confucian value system such as acts of treason, mass murder, parenticide or the murder of one's master or employer. Emperors used it to threaten people and sometimes ordered it for minor offences. There were forced convictions and wrongful executions. Some emperors meted out this punishment to the family members of his enemies.

mailed postcard depicting Ling Chi execution

The process involved tying the person to be executed to a wooden frame, usually in a public place. The flesh was then cut from the body in multiple slices in a process that was not specified in detail in Chinese law and therefore most likely varied. In later times, opium was sometimes administered either as an act of mercy or as a way of preventing fainting. Lingchi could be used for the torture and execution of a living person, or applied as an act of humiliation after death. So, the punishment worked on three levels: as a form of public humiliation, as a slow and lingering death, and as a punishment after death. According to the Confucianism to be cut someone to pieces meant that the body of the victim would not be "whole" in a spiritual life after death.

This method of execution became a fixture in the image of China among some Westerners. The last executions late 19th early 20th cent. were extensively photographed and printed in postcards. Three sets of photographs shot by French soldiers in 1904-1905 were the basis for later mythification. The abolition was immediately enforced, and definite: no official sentences of língchí were performed in China after April 1905.

The massacres against Waldensians

Waldensians or Vaudois are names for a Christian movement of the later Middle Ages, descendants of which still exist in various regions, primarily in North-Western Italy. They were persecuted as heretical in the 12th century onwards, and endured near-annihilation in the 17th century. There are active congregations in Europe, South America, and North America. The contemporary and historic Waldensian spiritual heritage describes itself as proclaiming the Gospel, serving the marginalized, promoting social justice, fostering inter-religious work, and advocating respect for religious diversity and freedom of conscience. Modern Waldensians are gathered in the Waldensian Evangelical Church.

In 1179, some Waldensians went to Rome, where Pope Alexander III forbade explanation or critical interpretation (exegesis) without authorization from the local clergy. They disobeyed and began to preach according to their own understanding of the scriptures. Seen by the Roman Catholic Church as unorthodox, they were formally declared heretics by Popes. The members of the group were declared schismatics in 1184 in France and heretics more widely in 1215 by Pope Innocent III during the Fourth Council of the Lateran's anathema. The rejection by the Church radicalized the movement; in terms of ideology the Waldensians became more obviously anti-Catholic—rejecting the authority of the clergy. In 1211, more than 80 Waldensians were burned as heretics at Strasbourg, beginning several centuries of persecution that nearly destroyed the movement.

Outside the Piedmont, the Waldenses joined the local Protestant churches in Bohemia, France, and Germany. After they came out of clandestinity and reports were made of sedition on their part, the French king, Francis I issued on 1 January 1545 the "Arrêt de Mérindol", and armed an army against the Waldensians of Provence. The leaders in the 1545 massacres were Jean Maynier d'Oppède, First President of the parlement of Provence, and the military commander Antoine Escalin des Aimars who was returning from the Italian Wars with 2,000 veterans, the Bandes de Piémont. Deaths in the Massacre of Mérindol ranged from hundreds to thousands, depending on the estimates, and several villages were devastated.

In 1655 the Duke of Savoy commanded the Vaudois to attend Mass or remove to the upper valleys, giving them twenty days in which to sell their lands. In a most severe winter these targets of persecution, old men, women, little children and the sick "waded through the icy waters, climbed the frozen peaks, and at length reached the homes of their impoverished brethren of the upper Valleys, where they were warmly received." There they found refuge and rest. Deceived by false reports of Vaudois resistance, the Duke sent an army. On 24 April 1655, at 4 a.m., the signal was given for a general massacre, the horrors of which can be detailed only in small part. The massacre was so brutal it aroused indignation throughout Europe. Oliver Cromwell, then ruler in England, began petitioning on behalf of the Vaudois, writing letters, raising contributions, calling a general fast in England and threatening to send military forces to the rescue. The massacre prompted John Milton's famous poem on the Waldenses, "On the Late Massacre in Piedmont".

Gustave Dore (1832-1886)

Massacre of the Vaudois of Merindol (1545)

In 1685 Louis XIV guaranteed freedom of religion to his Protestant subjects in France. The cousin of Louis, The Duke of Savoy, Victor Amadeus II followed his uncle in removing the protection of Protestants in the Piedmont. In the renewed persecution, an edict decreed that all inhabitants of the Valleys should publicly announce their error in religion within fifteen days under penalty of death and banishment and the destruction of all the Vaudois churches. Armies of French and Piedmontese soldiers invaded the Valleys, laying them waste and perpetrating cruelties upon the inhabitants.

After the French Revolution, the Waldenses of Piedmont were assured liberty of conscience and, in 1848, the ruler of Savoy, King Charles Albert of Sardinia granted them civil rights.

Samuel Moreland's "History of the Evangelical

Churches of the Valleys of Piedmont" (1658).

The massacre of the Waldenses in 1655.

The young woman being tortured is said to be Anna,

daughter of Giovanni Charboniere of La Torre.

Abu Graib by Fernando Botero

Fernando Botero, born April 19, 1932, is a Colombian figurative artist. His style is fat people with happy childish faces. Except two macabre series, one about the drug cartel terrorism in his country (man hunt and settling accounts executions), and the most prominent, the Abu Graib atrocities. In 2005 Botero gained considerable attention for his Abu Ghraib series, which was exhibited first in Europe. He based the works on reports of United States forces' abuses of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison during the Iraq War. Beginning with an idea he had on a plane journey, Botero produced more than 85 paintings and 100 drawings in exploring this concept and "painting out the poison." The series was exhibited at two United States locations in 2007, including Washington, DC. Botero said he would not sell any of the works, but would donate them to museums.

Unit 731, the forgotten holocaust.

This was the first female prisoner of Unit 731
and she was exposed alive to
phosphorus burn experiments

Unit 731 was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that undertook lethal human experimentation during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) and World War II. It was responsible for some of the most notorious war crimes carried out by Japanese personnel. The number of people killed in Unit 731 is around 580,000. Unit 731 was based at the Pingfang district of Harbin in Northeast China). More than 95% of the victims who died in the camp based in Pingfang were Chinese and Korean, including both civilian and military. The remaining 5% were South East Asians and Pacific Islanders, at the time colonies of the Empire of Japan, and a small number of the prisoners of war from the Allies of World War II.

Vivisected when alive pregnant woman and her baby

Test subjects were gathered from the surrounding population and were sometimes referred to euphemistically as “logs” Prisoners of war were subjected to vivisection without anaesthesia. Vivisections were performed on prisoners after infecting them with various diseases. Scientists performed invasive surgery on prisoners, removing organs to study the effects of disease on the human body. These were conducted while the patients were alive because it was feared that the decomposition process would affect the results. The infected and vivisected prisoners included men, women, children, and infants. Prisoners had limbs amputated in order to study blood loss. Those limbs that were removed were sometimes re-attached to the opposite sides of the body. Some prisoners’ limbs were frozen and amputated, while others had limbs frozen then thawed to study the effects of the resultant untreated gangrene and rotting. Some prisoners had their stomachs surgically removed and the oesophagus reattached to the intestines. Parts of the brain, lungs, liver, etc. were removed from some prisoners. Human targets were used to test grenades positioned at various distances and in different positions. Flame throwers were tested on humans. Humans were tied to stakes and used as targets to test germ-releasing bombs, chemical weapons, and explosive bombs. Prisoners were injected with inoculations of disease, disguised as vaccinations, to study their effects. To study the effects of untreated venereal diseases, male and female prisoners were deliberately infected with syphilis and gonorrhoea, then studied. Prisoners were infested with fleas in order to acquire large quantities of disease-carrying fleas for the purposes of studying the viability of germ warfare. Plague fleas, infected clothing, and infected supplies encased in bombs were dropped on various targets. The resulting cholera, anthrax, and plague were estimated to have killed around 400,000 Chinese civilians. Prisoners were subjected to other torturous experiments such as being hung upside down to see how long it would take for them to choke to death, having air injected into their arteries to determine the time until the onset of embolism, and having horse urine injected into their kidneys. Other incidents include being deprived of food and water to determine the length of time until death, being placed into high-pressure chambers until death, having experiments performed upon prisoners to determine the relationship between temperature, burns, and human survival, being placed into centrifuges and spun until dead, having animal blood injected and the effects studied, being exposed to lethal doses of x-rays, having various chemical weapons tested on prisoners inside gas chambers, being injected with sea water to determine if it could be a substitute for saline and being buried alive.

a young Russian woman prisoner who died
during the test of the ceramic bomb explosion
effect on a human body when alive.
These ceramic bombs were developed for
delivering anthrax and bubonic plague.

Every member of the group was ordered “to take the secret to the grave”, threatened to be found and executed if they failed, and prohibiting any of them from going into public work back in Japan. Potassium cyanide vials were issued for use in the event that the remaining personnel were captured. Skeleton crews of Japanese troops blew the compound up in the final days of the war to destroy evidence of their activities, but most were so well constructed that they survived somewhat intact as a testimony to what had happened there. Many of the scientists involved in Unit 731 went on to prominent careers in post-war politics, academia, business, and medicine. Some were arrested by Soviet forces and tried at the Khabarovsk War Crime Trials; others surrendered to the American Forces. In 2007, Doctor Ken Yuasa testified to the Japan Times that, “I was afraid during my first vivisection, but the second time around, it was much easier. By the third time, I was willing to do it.” He believes at least 1,000 people, including surgeons, were involved in vivisections over mainland China.

a female victim developed gas gangrene
of her buttocks after the test of the ceramic
bomb filled with Clostridium bacterial spores

Η Μονάδα 731 ήταν μια μυστική μονάδα του Ιαπωνικού Αυτοκρατορικού Στρατού στον Σινο-ιαπωνικό πόλεμο (1937-1945) και Β’ Παγκόσμιο πόλεμο, όπου γίνονταν έρευνα για ανάπτυξη βιολογικών και χημικών όπλων. Σε αυτή τη μονάδα έγιναν απίστευτης ωμότητας πειράματα πάνω σε ανθρώπους, Κινέζους και Κορετάτες αιχμαλώτους, στρατιώτες ή αμάχους, ακόμα και μερικούς ευρωπαίους συλληφθέντες στρατιώτες. Υπολογίζεται να έχουν φονευθεί εκεί περίπου 580.000 άτομα σε όλη τη διάρκεια της λειτουργίας της. Βρισκόταν στην περιοχή Pingfang της ΝΑ Κίνας.

A bound chinese woman suffered the
insertion of a live cockroach in her vagina

Οι κρατούμενοι υποβάλλονταν σε πειράματα και χειρουργικές επεμβάσεις, αφαιρέσεις οργάνων και ακρωτηριασμούς χωρίς αναισθησία, αφού πρωτα είχαν μολυνθεί με διάφορους μολυσματικούς ιούς και τοξικά. Τα θύματα μπορεί να ήταν ακόμα και έγκυες γυναίκες, παιδιά και βρέφη. Όλα αυτά τα αποτρόπαια πειραματα γίνονταν για να μελετηθεί η αντίδραση του ανθρώπινου οργανισμού σε εκθέσεις σε τοξικά, ιούς, ακόμα και πόσο μπορεί να ζήσει κάποιος με σοβαρό ακρωτηριασμό και γάγγραινα. Επίσης σε ανθρώπινους στόχους δοκίμαζαν την αποτελεσματικότητα πυροβόλων, βομβών, και φλογοβόλων ανάλογα με την απόσταση. έπαιζαν με ανατομικές τερατογενέσεις, πχ άλλαζαν θέση σε όργανα και μέλη σε ζωντανούς ανθρώπους. Μόλυναν γυναίκες με αφροδίσια νοσήματα, εμβολιάζονταν με θανατηφόρους ιούς, εκτίθονταν σε μολυσμένα έντομα (ψύλλους, κατσαρίδες, κλπ). Μόνο οι συνεπαγόμενες λοιμώδεις αρρώστιες σκότωσαν περίπου 400.000 άτομα σε αυτή τη μονάδα. Αλλοι φυλακισμένοι υφίσταντο διάφορα βασανιστήρια, τους έκαναν ενέσιμο αέρα ή ακόμα και ούρα για να δουν τις επιπτώσεις, θάψιμο ζωντανών, πείνα, δίψα, έκθεση σε ακραίες θερμοκρασίες, ακτινοβολίες και πιέσεις για να μελετηθεί η αντοχή του ανθρώπινου σώματος σε αυτές τις κακοποιήσεις.

Shiro Ishii (1892–1959) was a Japanese microbiologist
and the lieutenant general of Unit 731.
He was never prosecuted for any war crimes.

Οσοι συνένοχοι συμμετείχαν στα πειράματα είχαν δώσει όρκο θανάτου και να πάρουν το μυστικό στον τάφο τους. Για την περίπτωση σύλληψης κάποιου είχαν προμηθευτεί με κυάνιο για να αυτοκτονήσουν. Στο τέλος του πολέμου, ειδικά σώματα στρατιωτών ανατίναξαν τη μονάδα για να εξαφανίσουν κάθε ίχνος και μαρτυρία, αλλά η έκταση και οι θεμελιώσεις ήταν τόσο εκτεταμένες που δεν ήταν αποτελεσματική η επιχείρηση. Όμως, παρόλο που έγιναν γνωστές αυτές οι ωμότητες, ελάχιστοι από τους υπευθύνους δικάστηκαν και καταδικάστηκαν, οι περισσότεροι έκαναν καριέρα στην ιατρική, στην πολιτική, στα πανεπιστήμια και στον επιχειρηματικό τομέα. Το 2007, ένας από τους συμμετέχοντες γιατρούς δήλωσε κυνικότατα: «Στην αρχή με τρόμαζαν οι «ανατομικές επεμβάσεις» αυτές, μετά ήταν πιο εύκολα και τελικά άρχισε να μου αρέσει να το κάνω».

Kirpal Singh, an Indian historical painter

Bhai Mati Das was sawn by Islamists

Kirpal Singh (1923-1990) was a historical painter of India. His most famous works are the atrocities of Islamist Mughals against Sikh populations to the point of genocide during 17-18th century. Famous martyrs as Bhai Mati Das, even infants were executed with extreme cruelty.

Sikh babies were speared before their mothers

St Agatha’s Martyrdom

Francesco Guarino (1637-1640)


Η Αγία Αγκάθα εκ Σικελίας της Καθολικής εκκλησίας, ιδιαίτερα γνωστή στην Σικελία και τη Μάλτα μαρτύρησε περίπου το 251 μΧ όταν αρνήθηκε να εγκαταλείψει την πίστη της αφού υποβλήθηκε σε ένα σωρό βασανιστήρια με πιο γνωστό αυτό της κοπής του στήθους της, ένας συνήθης μαρτυρικός θάνατος γυναικών τη ρωμαϊκή και την μεσαιωνική εποχή.

Sebastiano Piombo 1520

Church of the Annunciation in Żarnowiec-Poland

Η Αγία αυτή έγινε θρύλος κυρίως λόγω του συγκεκριμένου μαρτυρίου της, παριστάνεται δε συχνά σαν να προσφέρει τα στήθη της σε μια πιατέλα (συμβολισμός μητρικής φροντίδας) και να είναι ο προστάτης των αρτοποιών, των κατασκευαστών καμπανών (λόγω ομοιότητας του σχήματος) και των γυναικών που πάσχουν από καρκίνο του στήθους. Επίσης σε μερικά μοναστήρια της Νοτίου Ιταλίας προσφέρεται ένα γλυκό που μοιάζει με γυναικείο στήθος και ονομάζεται τα «στήθη της Αγίας Αγκάθας»

Tiepolo Giambattista, 1755

Giovanni Pietro da Cemmo, 1492
(Foto_Luca_Giarelli)

Anonimo,17 century

Saint Agatha of Sicily is a very famous saint in Catholic Church, especially in Sicily and Malta, who died from tortures about 251 AD by Romans because she didn’t deny her Christian faith. Her most famous torture was that of cutting her breasts, a common horrible way of execution in Roman and Medieval ages.

Sano di Pietro, 1470–73

Master of Raoul d'Ailly
Beauvais Hours - Rouen, 1430-1432

She then became a legendary figure, represented as she offers her breast in a plate (maternal symbolism of charity and nutrition) and is the patron saint of bakers, bell makers and women who suffers from breast cancer. There is also a traditional candy offered in some Italian monasteries the “Saint Agatha’s Breasts” that resembles in shape with small breasts.

unknown

Marcantonio, 1500-1527

Diana Scultori, 1577

Francesco Furini 1635-1645

Francisco de Zurbaran, 1630-1633

Cariani (Giovanni Busi) 1516-1517

Orazio Riminaldi (1625)