Chaim Uryson was born in Slonim, Poland in 1905. When he was three years old, his family moved to Lodz. In primary school, his teachers already noted Chaim's special affinity for drawing and music, and Mauricio Trembacz, the lauded Jewish artist, became his mentor. In 1919, the "redhead with the beautiful eyes" joined the Yavne Gymnasium, where Zionism reigned supreme and most subjects were taught in Hebrew. In 1925, Uryson traveled to Paris and enrolled in the Art Department at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. To appease his parents, who were unsettled by his choice of a career in art, he also registered at the Department of French Literature.
Six years later, Chaim returned to Lodz. Visiting an orphanage at Halnowek in the city suburbs, he delighted the children by drawing their portraits – while a young girl named Neomi watched from the side. A friendship soon developed between the two, and when Neomi moved to Warsaw, Uryson followed her. They married soon afterwards. Five years later, Neomi found work in Vilna. In the bustling city, Uryson joined a circle of Jewish avant-garde artists called Yung Vilne. His artworks were highly successful, and his 1938 exhibition earned critical acclaim.
The Urysons spent their 1939 summer vacation with Neomi's parents in the village of Mielnica, on the Dniester riverside. In that pastoral and still peaceful setting, Chaim continued to paint. But when the couple returned to their hometown of Częstochowa, the real state of affairs became clear, and in early September, they fled to Borszczow in eastern Poland. In the spring of 1941, they received a heart-rending letter from Chaim's widowed mother in Bialystok: her health was deteriorating and her only wish was to see her dear son one last time. "On Friday 20 July 1941, my father and I put Chaim on the train to Bialystok," recalled Neomi. "I never saw him again."
According to testimony given by the artist Yitzchak Tzelinker, Uryson was killed during an aktion in the Bialystok ghetto in August 1943. Before his death, Chaim told Tzelinker that he had left his wife a large stock of artworks in Poland. Neomi, who had stayed on the Soviet side of the border in fear, yearning and loneliness, returned to Poland in 1946. "I needed to get to Częstochowa, to find the heart and soul of Chaim's life," related Neomi. "We got the keys and went up to the attic, where Chaim's paintings had been hidden for seven years. The works were frameless, damaged and scattered all over the place. I was terribly shaken… My friend Shimon [Quarnit] went to the city and brought back a large chest for the treasure I had found – a treasure more precious to me than anything."
Some years later, Neomi and her new husband Shimon immigrated to Israel. In April 1961, the first exhibition of Uryson's rescued artworks was held at Beit Sokolov. In 1984, Neomi Uryson-Quarnit donated seven of Chaim Uryson's paintings to the Yad Vashem art collection. But the journeys of Uryson's artworks did not end there.
A teacher by profession, Neomi grew very attached to one of her students, Haim Tsoref, whose family became the children and grandchildren she never had. In gratitude, Neomi presented Tsoref with a large collection of graphics and watercolors by her first husband. In May 2011, Tsoref and his wife attended a collection day held by Yad Vashem in Rehovot as part of the "Gathering the Fragments" project. Tsoref brought with him over 40 of Uryson's works. To the Yad Vashem staff, he explained his indebtedness to Neomi, and his resulting decision to place the artworks in the care and safekeeping of Yad Vashem.
Coincidentally, more of Uryson's works were on their way to Yad Vashem. In her old age, Neomi had been cared for by a relative, Orit Silberstein, to whom she also presented some of her first husband's artworks. These pieces, mostly oil portraits and watercolor landscapes, remained in Silberstein's home for almost 20 years. Just a few months after his mother passed away, Ariel Pkotinsky learned about the "Gathering the Fragments" project, and with the help of his friend Ron Bartosh, contacted Yad Vashem. When the project team arrived at Pkotinsky's home, they were amazed to discover eleven of Uryson's works, mostly portraits of his family members and close friends, including of Chaim himself and his beloved Neomi.
Thus, many years after the paintings came to life under the artist's brush, Chaim Uryson and his devoted partner Neomi have unexpectedly been reunited. Both their portraits form part of the same collection at Yad Vashem and are displayed exactly where they should be – at the Yad Vashem Museum of Holocaust Art.
First published in Yad Vashem Jerusalem magazine, #67, October 2012
