The death of Andrei Ivanovich
Behind the camp fences stood the "gallows tree" on which escaped and recaptured prisoners were hanged. Tortures and executions took place in front of all the camp inmates. Sometimes the prisoners had to hang their comrades themselves. The other prisoners were forced to watch these murders.
On September 7, 1944, six escapees were hanged after a failed escape attempt. The group had been organized under the leadership of the Russian deportee Andrei Ivanovich, a former colonel in the Red Army.
Ivanovich had asked the French prisoner Nevrouz Tzareghian, who worked in the camp guards' bakery, to steal enough bread to feed the six escapees. The escape attempt failed. Three men were arrested by the SS two weeks later and tortured for several days. Among them was a 17-year-old prisoner who gave the name Andrei Ivanovich under torture.
Ivanovich was then ordered to overturn the barrels under the feet of the men who already had the nooses around their necks. But Ivanovich replied to the SS: "You are a monster. Hang them yourself." This refusal led to Ivanovich being hanged by the SS guards. It is believed that he was still alive when he was taken down from the gallows tree and thrown alive into a hole filled with concrete.
However, recent, unpublished documents from French and American archives cast doubt on the exact "burial" of Andrei Ivanovich.
The "gallows tree" is considered a symbol of suffering and horror, but also of courage and resistance.