David Olère

David Olère (January 19, 1902 in Warsaw – August 21, 1985 in Paris) was a Polish-born French painter and sculptor best known for his explicit drawings and paintings based on his experiences as a Jewish Sonderkommando inmate at Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II.

Olère studied at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, and upon completion of his studies there at the age of 16, moved to Danzig and later Berlin, where he exhibited woodcuts at museums and art houses. In 1921 he was hired by Ernst Lubitsch at the Europäische Film Allianz to work as a set builder for the film Das Weib des Pharao. Olère also lived in Munich and Heidelberg before moving to Paris in 1923 and settling in Montparnasse, where he designed costumes and publicity posters for Paramount Pictures. In 1930, Olère married Juliette Ventura who gave birth to his son, Alexandre. When war broke out, Olère was drafted into the infantry regiment at Lons-le-Saunier.

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.

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