In pictures: Olère art depicts Auschwitz horrors

A Polish-French Jew, David Olère, painted Auschwitz death camp scenes after surviving the horrors there. This is a self-portrait.

The Auschwitz Memorial in southern Poland has acquired 18 Olère paintings. Nazi Germany murdered about one million Jews and 100,000 non-Jews at the Auschwitz complex.

Deported to the camp from Paris in 1943, Olère was forced into the Sonderkommando - a unit which collected corpses after gassing.

Olère shows the cruel Nazi slogan "work makes you free" and a crematorium chimney. He died in France in 1985 aged 83.

The artist's works are valued for helping to document the Holocaust. Poland's culture ministry bought the 18 works, the world's largest Olère collection.