Watercolor by a US soldier of corpses from a liberated concentration camp awaiting burial
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 9.875 inches (25.083 cm) | Width: 12.000 inches (30.48 cm)
Creator(s)
- Horace S. Berry (Subject)
- Norman Nichols (Subject)
- Norman Nichols (Artist)
Biographical History
Norman Nichols was from Detroit, Michigan, He was attending art school when he was inducted into the United States Army. He was assigned to Company "K", 5th regiment, 71st Infantry Division. On May 4, 1945, his unit liberated Gunskirchen concentration camp, a subcamp of Mauthausen, near Lambach in Upper Austria. Company "K", under the command of Captain Horace S. Berry, was tasked with the clean up of the camp. Nichols, because of his art background, was placed on a roving assignment by Major General Willard G. Wyman, commanding general of the 71st. His job was to record in paintings accurate depictions of the atrocities encountered at the camp. Many of his artworks were used to illustrate a pamphlet the soldiers of the unit created around this time, Seventy-first came -- to Gunskirchen Lager.
Horace S. Berry was born in 1920 in Greer, South Carolina. Captain Berry was the commanding officer of "K" company, 5th regiment, 71st Infantry Division, United States Army. On May 4, 1945, the 71st liberated Gunskirchen concentration camp, a subcamp of Mauthausen, near Lambach in Upper Austria. Company "K" was tasked with the clean up of the camp. Berry supervised the transfer of ill and dying inmates to hospitals. Captured German soldiers or guards were made to carry the inmates from the huts on the woods to trucks for transport. Berry also arranged for the burial of the dead inmates. One detail of German soldiers would carry and arrange the corpses in a clearing, while another detail dug the mass graves.
Archival History
The watercolor was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1988 by Horace S. Berry.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Horace S. Berry
Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Scope and Content
Watercolor created by Norman Nichols on VE Day, May 8, 1945, in Lambach, Austria, and given to Captain Horace S. Berry, both soldiers in the 71st Infantry Division, US Army. It depicts dead inmates from recently liberated Gunskirchen concentration camp being arranged prior to burial in mass graves. Kneeling among the corpses is a boy who, explained the artist, "sat most of the day staring at the body of his brother, sobbing quietly and begging the Germans to give him a decent burial in an individual grave." US forces made the German guards collect and bury the dead. Nichols was a soldier in "K" company, 5th regiment, 71st Infantry, commanded by Capt. Berry. The 71st liberated the camp on May 4, 1945. "K" company was tasked with the clean up and establishment of sanitary conditions at the camp. This drawing was used as an illustration in the pamphlet, Seventy-first came -- to Gunskirchen Lager, p. 15, published by the men of the Division in 1945.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Watercolor on paper depicting several dead, partially clothed bodies upon a green and brown patch of ground near a darkly shaded treeline. Horizontally across the foreground lies an emaciated male in shorts and socks. His head, with spiky dark hair, rests upon a bundle of cloth, eyes closed as if sleeping. Close behind him lie 2 other bodies, one face down in a white shirt, the other face up. Behind them in shadow, painted in muted black, brown, and dark green, are several bodies covered in blankets. On the right, a dark figure in prison cap and jacket, kneels at the feet of one of the bodies. In the left background, behind a mound of light brown earth, is the head and handle of a shovel, and an outlined silhouette of 2 heads with military caps, looking toward the bodies. Signed and dated by the artist.
Corporate Bodies
- United States. Army. Infantry Division, 71st
- Gunskirchen (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American.
- Soldiers--United States--Biography.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Austria--Gunskirchen.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in art.
- Concentration camps in art.
- Soldiers as artists--United States--Biography.
- World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Liberation--Personal narratives, American.
Genre
- Object
- Art