Baruch Wind bronze, metal, and stone sculpture commemorating the experiences of his family and the Jews of Galicia at forced labor

Baruch Buzio Wind was born on February 17, 1926, in Chodorow, Poland (Khodoriv, Ukraine), to an Orthodox Jewish family. His father, Izak,was a wood merchant, born in 1870, and his mother, Bluma Bilik, was born in 1880. Baruch had 4 sisters: Esther, Sara, Rachel, and Chana, and 2 brothers: Josef and Kopel, his twin. Baruch attended a school that taught Hebrew and joined the Ha-Shomer Ha-Tzair youth movement. In 1936, his father died and the family had to depend upon their vegetable garden for income. In mid-September, the Soviet Union invaded and occupied eastern Poland and Chodorow came under Soviet control. In June 1941, the Germans attacked the Soviet Union and occupied eastern Poland. Baruch was assigned to forced labor under brutal German and Ukrainian guards who whipped the workers as they worked in the snow and freezing cold. One day his mother went out to search for food and was killed by German soldiers. The children stayed hidden in the attic all day as told, until finally realizing that she was not coming home. The eldest sister, Chana, assumed responsibility for the family and sold furniture for food. A little later, his brother, Josef, was shot and killed. Chana obtained false Aryan identity papers for herself and moved to Lvov. In winter 1942, Baruch decided to flee Chodorow, also leaving his siblings behind. He posed as a Ukrainian orphan named Iwasio and worked as a shepherd. While staying with a Ukrainian peasant, Baruch slept in the main house. One night he awoke shouting in Yiddish. He fled immediately, but soon found refuge with the Holojat family. He stayed with this family until liberation by the Soviet Army in 1944. Baruch joined the Soviet Army and was seriously wounded during a battle and hospitalized. After the war ended in May 1945, he returned to Chodorow to find a strange woman living in his family's home. All of his family members had died from illness or been killed. He left for Italy where he studied at the Art Academy in Turin before emigrating to Israel in June 1948. He was conscripted into the Israel Defense Forces and fought in the War for Independence. He later studied at the Bezalel Academy of Arts in Jerusalem and at an art school in Tel Aviv. Baruch settled in Ashdod where he worked on the construction of the port. He married and had children. He and his wife opened a clothing store in 1965 and Baruch was able to commit more time to his art. Many of his sculptures are on display throughout Ashdod. His work often reflects upon and memorializes his Holocaust experiences.

The sculpture was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2010 by Baruch Wind.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Baruch Wind

Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.