"Hidden Masterpiece by Haredi Artist Who Survived Nazi Bombings Unveiled"

International artist Huvy Elisha passed away last year, yet she left behind singular works of art. In the coming weeks, a painting in which she portrayed the destruction of a Jewish community during the Holocaust will be unveiled.

On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day (Monday), a previously unknown work by international painter Huvy Elisha — who passed away about a year ago — has been unveiled.

Despite the many hardships she endured, Huvy chose to focus on the positive dimensions of life. Most of her years were spent in Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim neighborhood, and her paintings often radiate an exuberant joy. One of her works was recently appraised at more than one million shekels.

Now, following her passing, a newly discovered painting has emerged — a moving depiction of a Jewish shtetl as it transitions from its quiet, peaceful rhythm of life into the horrors of the Nazi onslaught

In this impressionist work, Huvy portrays the children of the shtetl walking with their rabbi beside a synagogue collapsing into the abyss — directly into the hands of Nazi soldiers, waiting to lead them toward the Final Solution prepared for them. Huvy, of blessed memory, chose to conceal this painting, which seems to have served as a private outlet for the boundless anguish that seared her soul in the shadow of the Holocaust, where many of her family’s acquaintances perished.

Huvy herself survived while fleeing from London as the Germans bombed it. Mere moments after she and her family disembarked from the train that carried them out of the city, German aircraft struck it, killing most of the passengers. Huvy would later describe herself as a Holocaust survivor, shaped by the bombings she endured as a child in London and in the remote towns across Britain to which she escaped in order to save her life.

source: Israel hayom