Exhibition · 2020–2026 · 25 works
כי ממני באת ואלי תשוב
The works bring together the past and present of a family that survived the Holocaust, immigrated to Israel and took root there. Paintings from the perspective of an artist who is second generation to Holocaust survivors.
To keep the exhibition whole, its original works are not for sale. Selected works are offered as signed reproductions
The series reflects my identity as a second-generation descendant of Holocaust survivors. These works interweave past and present: portraits of my family across generations are drawn directly onto original pages from “GORAL”, a memoir authored by my late grandfather, Shlomo Aharon Blankitny, who documented our family’s journey through the horrors of the Holocaust.
By layering my drawings over these historical pages, I do not erase the record; I sustain it. I add my hand where his voice left off. Within the compositions, I embed archival materials and first-person testimonies, both explicitly and subtly, sometimes legible, sometimes partially obscured, as living evidence of a trauma that was seared into the survivors and inherited by the second and third generations.
Preserving the authenticity of the original Yiddish text was vital. Though I do not speak the language, Yiddish is not archaic to me; it is the intimate language of my grandparents’ home, a source of both longing and profound comfort. In placing the younger generations upon these pages, the work offers a sense of solace and an affirmation of life’s continuity.
Lior Yeshaya Marom – second generation to Holocaust survivors, a descendant of the Blankitny and Nestiphover families
The Book
“GORAL” tells the story of a Jewish family’s struggle to survive in occupied Poland, and later in Eastern Europe under Soviet rule, during the Second World War, 1939–1945: my grandparents and their three young children, facing Nazi killings, hunger and freezing cold, crossing dangerous combat zones under fire, until they reached western Kazakhstan.
The book was written in Yiddish and published in Israel in 1968. The works in this series are drawn on its original pages.
Series 1 · 40×60 cm
Portraits on the original pages of my late grandfather Shlomo Aharon Blankitny’s book: the surviving generation and the generations that followed.
I drew your face, Grandma From a photograph taken before the war Before the gunfire, the murders, the hunger, the freezing cold, the fear I painted you on the pages of Grandpa’s book If only to tell you It will be all right, Mama
Grandpa wrote in his book “GORAL” that while fleeing the Nazis You came close to death three times as a baby The last time, they had already said their goodbyes But Grandpa writes that each time “The heavenly kid goats” came And saved you In 2018, before your 79th birthday, which falls on Tu BiShvat The heavenly kid goats took you with them And as Hila said “Grandpa will always remain in our hearts”
I thought about the way Today As I walked among the trees Lost in thought I thought about the way Back then That you took through the forest Beaten and left with nothing Frightened, fearing for the children’s lives I thought about the way A few days ago That we took along the road as missiles fell Frightened, fearing for the children’s lives Perhaps This is our way Or perhaps not
Series 2 · Drawings on the book’s pages
Scenes from the lives of the surviving generation and those that followed, in charcoal on the book’s original pages.
Series 3 · Large works
Charcoal and pastel works in which testimony pages and documents are embedded in the image, sometimes visible, sometimes concealed.
The work is rooted in childhood memories of festive family gatherings of survivors who endured Nazi horrors and lost many relatives. Beneath the joy lay a secret no one dared tell. Whenever someone spoke, a voice would whisper in Yiddish: “Shhh... not in front of the children.” The title paraphrases Elie Wiesel. Here the festive table dissolves, faces vanish, and in their place emerge pages from “GORAL”, my grandfather’s book. Through this, I have finally loosened the long, painful family silence.
Night after night Grandpa You shed Your clothes as a Hebrew laborer in the Land of Israel And wrapped yourself in the darkness of your Holocaust memories And you wrote It burned within you Held you in its embrace And you found the strength And I Night after night Take off my clothes as a Hebrew architect in the Land of Israel And bury my hands in charcoal Like you
My father Gershon and Yosef Nestinpover (right), of blessed memory, were cousins and both photographers. They shared a very special bond and a great love; my father always called Yosef “the hero”. Yosef, eighteen years older than my father, was a photographer before the war. He escaped the ghetto on the eve of its liquidation by the Nazis and joined the partisans, fighting with them throughout the war. My father, a child during the war, came close to death three times and survived. In the painting I wove in Yosef’s testimony to Yad Vashem about his escape from the ghetto, and my grandfather’s account from his book “GORAL” of the family’s fate in the Holocaust.
Charcoal and pen on paper · 7 works
Art program at the Alon School of the Arts, Ramat Hasharon. Select a work to view it larger, and framed in the gallery.
For curators, museums and galleries
The exhibition is available for museums and galleries in Israel, the United States and Europe. It comprises 25 works with texts and poems in Hebrew and English, and can be accompanied by an artist talk, Zikaron BaSalon gatherings and educational programs.
