Yad Vashem to Present Pope Francis with a Replica of a Painting Created by the Teenage Abramek Koplowicz who was Murdered in the Holocaust.
Abraham (Abramek) Koplowicz created this painting in the Lodz Ghetto when he was about 13 years old. Abramek was murdered in Auschwitz at the age of 14. His mother Johet-Gitel was also murdered in Auschwitz; his father Mendel survived. After liberation, Mendel returned to the family's home in the ghetto and discovered the artwork and a notebook that Abramek had left behind in the attic. The notebook included eight poems and two satirical skits written by Abramek.
Mendel remarried a survivor from Lodz, Haya Grynfeld, and the two moved to Israel in 1956. In their home in Holon, Abramek's painting was displayed on the wall in Haya and Mendel's bedroom, but Mendel, who was introverted and withdrawn, never told anyone about the notebook filled with Abramek's writings. After Mendel and Haya had passed away, Mendel's stepson, Eliezer (Lolek) Grynfeld discovered the notebook. Lolek donated the painting and notebook to Yad Vashem to be safeguarded for future generations.
About the painting: "Prayer"
The painting depicts a Jewish man praying dressed in traditional Hassidic garb and wrapped in a talith (prayer shawl).The 13-year-old artist alludes to the misery of the ghetto with a number of details: the cracked and peeling paint exposing a brick wall, the distorted chinks in the wood floor, the quivering lines on the man and his talith - all convey a sense of fragility and unstableness. In contrast, the upright stature of the figure holding a prayer book in the center of the composition suggests the inner strength of the pious Jew clinging to his faith during this time of crisis and persecution.
Abraham (Abramek) Koplowicz (1930, Lodz –1944, Auschwitz)
Abramek was the only child of Mendel and Johet-Gitel who lived in the city of Lodz, Poland. A gifted child, Abramek, who was educated in Polish, received only two years of schooling before the outbreak of World War II. After the occupation of Lodz, Abramek and his family were incarcerated in the ghetto that was established in Spring 1940. Abramek was sent to work in a cobbler's workshop; his father Mendel served as the manager in a factory for the manufacture of paper. When the ghetto was liquidated in the summer of 1944, Abramek and his parents were deported to Auschwitz. Mendel managed to get Abramek through the first selection. One day, trying to protect his son from the back-breaking labor, Mendel hid Abramek in the barrack while he himself went to grueling labor outside the camp, but upon his return, he found Abramek's bed empty – his son had been taken to the gas chamber. Other prisoners, who had taken their children with them, returned that evening with their children to the barrack, but Mendel had lost his son. Abramek was murdered in September 1944. His mother, Johet-Gitel, was also murdered in Auschwitz; Mendel was the family's sole survivor.
Abramek's notebook of poems and skits, along with the story of this talented 14-year-old boy whose dreams were destroyed in the crematoria of Auschwitz, was published by Yad Vashem. During the visit of Pope Francis to Yad Vashem, an excerpt from his poem, "Dream" will be read. The original drawing and notebook are housed at Yad Vashem where they will be kept safe for posterity.
Dream...
When I will be 20 years old,
In a motorized bird I'll sit,
And to the reaches of space I'll rise.
I will fly, I will float to the beautiful
Faraway world
And skywards I will soar.
The cloud my sister will be
The wind is brother to me.
I will fly, I will float over rivers and seas.
I will marvel at the Euphrates and Nile.
I will gaze at the Sphinx and Pyramids
In the goddess Isis' ancient land.
I will glide over the mighty Niagara Falls,
And soak up the warmth of the Sahara's sun.
Over the cloud-covered Tibetan peaks will I ascend,
Above the mysterious magic land of the Hindus.
And when extricated from the sun's heat,
I will take wing to the Arctic north,
And I will whir above the giant Kangaroo isle,
And then over the ruins of Pompeii.
From there I'll set my sights to the Holy Land,
Where our Covenant was given.
I will even reach illustrious Homer's country,
And will be so amazed by the beauty of this world.
To the heavens I will take off.
The cloud my sister will be
The wind is brother to me.
Translation: Sarah Honig
