Six paintings (watercolor on paper) depicting the Gurs Detention Camp (Le camp de Gurs), France, by Ono Berndt, 1941.
The paintings show the various detention camp buildings (living quarters, kitchen). On the reverse side of the painting with the title “Total” (which shows a general view of the camp) there is another painting forming a title on which is written “Gurs 1941", and the name of the artist, Ono Berndt.
The Gurs detention Camp, in south west France, was established by the government of the Third French Republic, in 1939, after the fall of Catalonia at the end of the Spanish Civil War, to control the stream of refugees coming over the Spanish border. At the beginning of WWII German and other citizens from Axis countries were imprisoned there as well as French citizens who were thought to be dangerous politically. With the establishment of the Vichy regime in France, which collaborated with the Nazis, the camp became a detention camp for Jews who did not have French citizenship, as for others who were regarded as a danger to the government. Many of the Jews imprisoned there died as a result of the harsh conditions of the camp, and for others the camp served as a station on the way to the extermination camps in the east.
Total of six paintings on five paper sheets, 16X12 cm each, in a passe-partout 22X28 cm. Good condition, a few stains. Drawing pin holes at the corners of the pictures.