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Drawn in the two weeks following the liberation of the Langenstein-Zwieberge concentration camp, the sketches depict scenes of violence, forced labor and daily life inside the camp. Photo courtesy of Manhattan University\n<\/p>\nWhen Ken and Helene Orce bought their Edgemont home 33 years ago, they didn\u2019t know it held a hidden piece of Holocaust history.\n<\/p>\n
While recently renovating their home, Ken and Helen found a case filled with 26 colored pencil drawings done by concentration camp survivor Marcel Rauch weeks after liberation tucked away with newspaper clippings in a small space above a closet.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we found it, we were in awe. We knew we had to do something with it,\u201d Helene said.\n<\/p>\n
They contacted Ruth Epstein, the wife of Dr. William Epstein, who had lived in the house, only to hear that she didn\u2019t want the drawings back.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were a little bit stunned,\u201d she said. \u201cWhatever was left, was left.\u201d
\nDrawn in the two weeks following the liberation of the Langenstein-Zwieberge concentration camp, the sketches depict scenes of violence, forced labor and daily life inside the camp. Photo courtesy of Manhattan University\n<\/p>\n
The drawings, done in the two weeks following the liberation of the Langenstein-Zwieberge concentration camp by American troops, had been given to a U.S. Army Captain William Epstein, who went on to attend Cornell University Medical School.<\/p>\n
The Orce\u2019s ended up donating the artwork to Ken\u2019s alma mater, Manhattan University, a Catholic University in Riverdale. They are now on display at Manhattan University\u2019s O\u2019Malley Library Gallery.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cThe drawings represent an important form of primary source documentation, and they will now serve the very purpose for which Roux created them,\u201d said Professor Mehnaz M. Afridi, director of the university\u2019s Holocaust, Genocide and Interfaith Education Center.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTo ensure that the suffering and crimes of the Holocaust, and the stories of its survivors, are remembered and documented for future generations.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Afridi described the pictures, on display along with panels explaining the images and how they had been found, as an account of life in the camp.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know he wanted to tell his story at least in terms of these sketches,\u201d she said. \u201cThese sketches have never been seen in public before. You see the sequence of what happened to the victims. This is a visual representation. It also shows that non-Jews could risk their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Helene also believes the images were done to provide a kind of record, transcending language, by a French resistance fighter given to an American.
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Created by French resistance fighter and survivor Marcel Rauch, the drawings were given to a U.S. Army captain before being tucked away for decades in an Edgemont home. Photo courtesy of Manhattan University\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it was to preserve history,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat could he do while he was there? This way he had some artwork. You could get a feeling of what was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Orce\u2019s kept the drawings for decades, periodically looking at them and then returning them to a kind of limbo.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had them here for 30 years,\u201d Helene said. \u201cWe would show them to people. They would say you\u2019ve got to sell them. We were very much against selling them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Orce\u2019s tried to donate the drawings by a French resistance fighter, who wasn\u2019t Jewish, to Holocaust organizations who didn\u2019t indicate the intention of maintaining an exhibit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe answer was they\u2019d be happy to take them, but would not display them,\u201d Helene said. \u201cThey already had too much in their archives.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Ken graduated from Manhattan University, once he contacted Tom Mauriello at Manhattan University, he said they would love to get the drawings.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI am so happy that they have a home now,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that people will be able to see them and see this part of history.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Afridi said the word \u2018Kuenstmahler\u2019 or artist, but not professional, was on Roux\u2019s identity card along with a red triangle, which stands for resistance.<\/p>\n
The Orce\u2019s saw Manhattan University\u2019s Holocaust center, which already further investigated the drawings\u2019 origins, as an ideal home.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cManhattan College is in our hearts forever. When he was a sophomore in Manhattan, his father died of a massive heart attack,\u201d Helene said. \u201cHe withdrew from Manhattan. Two days later, he got a call from Manhattan saying they would provide a full scholarship.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Now on display at Manhattan University, the works serve as a rare primary record of the Holocaust, preserving the reality of what victims endured. Photo courtesy of Manhattan University<\/p>\n
Afridi said Roux was born in 1904, did the drawings in 1945 and died in 1982. \u201cHe was not a known artist,\u201d she said. \u201cHe was somebody who was very talented.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
They found out Roux was a French resistance fighter who along with his wife fought against fascism. She was sent to Ravensbrook, where she was killed. He spent three years in Sachsenhausen and time in Buchenwald in early 1945 before being moved to Langenstein-Zwieberge.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe French resistance movement from 1940 to 1945 was huge,\u201d Afridi said. \u201cIt had in its membership not only Jews, but Protestants, Catholics, Muslims and others.\u201d<\/p>\n
The drawings show guns pointed at inmates and other scenes from the living hell of a Nazi labor and concentration camp.\n<\/p>\n
Afridi said she \u201ccreated an exhibit,\u201d because she doesn\u2019t like things to be just sitting in a box.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are located in the Bronx, but also in Riverdale,\u201d Afridi added. \u201cMany Holocaust survivors went there after World War II.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Manhattan University created its Holocaust resources center to serve the community and tell an important story.\n<\/p>\n