Bergen-Belsen concentration camp

Bergen-Belsen concentration camp

Prisoners are visible behind barbed wire, wearing blue and white striped clothes and black shoes. A German soldier is guarding them, armed with a rifle. There are two huts. The white building has a large chimney with black smoke billowing out of it. The men look emaciated. One man is lying on the ground.

Label reads “109”; signed by the author; caption reads “Maggio 1944. Belsen orrenda! Erano ancora su questa terra oppure avevano superato senza accorgersi il confine tra la vita e la morte, ed erano capitati nella cupa città delle larve e degli spettri in un immane e repellente formicaio umano dove i vivi erano frammisti ai morti.”

Caption translates as: “May 1944. Horrible Belsen! Were they still in the same place of our, or did they cross the threshold between life and death without even noticing it? They ended up in the gloomy city of shadows and ghosts, in a dreadful and repulsive human anthill where the living commingled with the dead.”

One tempera on paper, pasted on mount board

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