Horst Rosenthal

The three books were first published in October 2014 by Calmann-Lévy and the Mémorial de la Shoah in Paris, 72 years after they were written.

[b] With the rise of antisemitism in Germany in the early 1930s, he fled to France on 3 July 1933 after having obtained a visa to stay in Paris for two months.

When Hitler invaded France in June 1940, Rosenthal was arrested because of his Jewish ancestry and spent time in four French concentration camps.

In 1940 an armistice between Germany and the Vichy government resulted in the conversion of Gurs to a concentration camp to house Jews and other "undesirables".

[7] Living conditions at Gurs were difficult, but the detainees did their best to make life tolerable by engaging in artistic activities when they were able.

[3] La Journée d'un Hébergé is 18 pages long and describes a typical day in the camp, including the forced marches, interrogations, substandard food, and romance with a female inmate.

[10] In 1986, Elsbeth Kasser, a Swiss nurse who voluntarily lived in camp Gurs to assist the detainees, donated Petit Guide à travers le Camp de Gurs, and other works created by inmates, to the Skovgaard Museum in Viborg, Denmark.