Peasants torturing Jews on the Road: They are beating my father in the Bodi Village
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 15.000 inches (38.1 cm) | Width: 23.750 inches (60.325 cm)
Creator(s)
- Shoshana Neuman (Subject)
- Shoshana Neuman (Artist)
Biographical History
Shoshana Neuman was born in 1932 in Czernowitz, Bukovina (Ukraine), then part of Romania. In 1940, it was reintegrated into the Ukraine which was part of the Soviet Union. Her father was born in 1900 and she had an older brother, Yosile, born in 1927, and a younger sister, Esti, born in 1935. In the fall of 1941, Shoshana’s family and the other Jewish inhabitants were deported from the Czernowitz ghetto to Transnistria, a region between the Bug and the Dniester Rivers given to Romania after Romania and Germany conquered the Ukraine that July and August. Shoshana and her family travelled there by foot on a six week forced march with little food or rest and no shelter. Her sister became unable to walk because of the blisters of her feet and had to be carried by their father. They crossed the Dniester River on rafts and the Romanian soldiers pushed many Jews into the water and watched them drown. Some people bartered their clothes for food along the way. Soon after they reached the Bershad ghetto, four members of Shoshana’s family died of starvation and disease: her father, who was 41, her 14 year old brother, and her 10 year old cousin. Her 6 year old sister, Esti, died of typhus and Shoshana stayed with her body for over a week until it was removed. Shoshana and her mother lived in the Bershad ghetto until the spring of 1944 when the Soviet Army re-conquered the region. Shoshana and her mother returned to Czernowitz which was again part of the Soviet Union. She was given a set of watercolors for her birthday and she began to draw without stopping. In 1945, her teachers discovered her talent and the school principal arranged an exhibition of her work in town. From 1946-1949, as partof a state controlled intervention by a Zionist organization, Shoshana was sent to Romania where she lived in several orphanages in different cities. She studied Hebrew and prepared for immigration to Israel. Eventually the Romanian government transferred the care of the children from the Zionist organizations to Communist ones. Shoshana was sent to an ORT school (Society for Trades and Agricultural Labor / Organization for Rehabilitation through Training), a Jewish non-profit that trained displaced people in technical trades. In 1950, she received her immigration certificate for Israel. Around 1970, Shoshana decided to take a painting class and began creating works based on her memories of what she saw and experienced as a child during the Holocaust. Her works were shown in an exhibition at Yad Vashem in 2010 and, as she told an interviewer: ““I have no family pictures. I painted this from memory, and it’s all I have to remember them.”
Archival History
The painting was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2007 by Shoshana Neuman.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Shoshana Neuman
Scope and Content
Painting created by Shoshana Neuman around 2007 depicting an event she remembered witnessing as a 9 year old child during the Holocaust. In the fall of 1941, Shoshana’s family was deported from the Czernowitz ghetto in Romania to the Transnistria region in Romanian occupied Ukraine. They were forced to march for six weeks with little food or rest and no shelter. Soon after they arrived at the Bershad ghetto, four family members died due to the brutal march or disease: her father, age 41, her brother, Yosile, age 14, her cousin, age 10, and her sister, Esti, age 6. Shoshana and her mother were released in 1944 after the region was retaken by the Soviet Union. Shoshana immigrated to Israel in 1950. Around 1970, Shoshana decided to take a painting class and began creating works based on her memories of what she saw and experienced as a child. As she told an interviewer in 2010 about a similar work: “I have no family pictures. I painted this from memory, and it’s all I have to remember them.”
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Oil painting on masonite of an image featuring shades of purple, gray, and white paint, of a large crowd beating up people outside in the snow. The central figure is a man wearing a long brown coat and hat with a yellow Star of David on the coat; the man is falling and surrounded by men with raised arms. Two men have fallen on the ground in front of him, and 2 men are standing behind him. The man on the right is holding a bottle and there is a pitchfork behind him. A man wearing a long brown coat stands at the front left and 2 other men stand in the back left. Several people are exiting the scene on the front right, while a man and girl are racing towards the scene from the center right. There are 2 buildings in the background and the landscape is snow covered. There is a white label with handwritten text on the reverse.
back bottom right, on label, green ink : SHOSHANA NEUMAN / DONATION / "THEY HURT MY FATHER / OIL ON MAZONITE / PRICE $500.- back top right, black marker : 17
Subjects
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in art.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Pictorial works.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Ukraine--Transnistria (Territory under German and Romanian occupation, 1941-1944)
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Ukraine--Chernivitz.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Ukraine--Bershad.
Genre
- Art
- Object