LSJS commemorates Yom Hashoah with a special event featuring the daughter of a Holocaust survivor and bomb saboteur.
The London School of Jewish Studies (LSJS) marked Yom Hashoah with a special free event featuring Anita Peleg, the daughter of renowned Holocaust survivor and artist Naomi Blake. Anita told her mother’s remarkable life story, to a large in person and online audience, at the event which is part of LSJS’ Summer term. One of Naomi’s bronze resin sculptures, featuring the words ‘Nizkor’ (‘we will remember’) was given to LSJS in 1992.
Anita told of how her mother was born Zisel Dum, in Mukacevo, Czechoslovakia, and was deported to Auschwitz with her family. Naomi and her sister worked at a munitions camp where POWs showed them how to sabotage German bombs.
After the war, she boarded an illegal ship to Mandatory Palestine, where she joined the Palmach but was shot in the neck by a British soldier. While recovering in hospital, she began carving small figurines which became a passion.
After marrying her husband, Asher Blake, Naomi moved to north London and went to art school. Much of her work has focused on the expression of her experiences, although her pieces are principally optimistic and positive.
Her sculptures, which were portrait and moved to abstract forms over the years, aim to help keep alive the legacy of the Jews murdered in the Holocaust. They also promote Naomi’s vision for uniting faiths and building understanding between religions as well as her hope for the future. Anita recalled her mother saying that ‘she carried Auschwitz in everything I do. It never leaves. I am subconsciously influenced by my past. It’s the people that didn’t survive that are on my mind; not what I went through. “
Her work has been exhibited in galleries in the UK and overseas, and her sculptures are permanently displayed in locations in London and at the University of Leicester, Bristol Cathedral, and the Holocaust Centre in Nottinghamshire among others.
Anita said “It was really meaningful to give a talk to an audience with my mother’s sculpture standing right outside. She would be very proud to see that her sculpture is still here helping people remember such a dark chapter of our history.”
Anita has published two books about her mother and is the Chair of Trustees for Generation 2 Generation (G2G), a Holocaust education charity which empowers second and third generation Holocaust survivor descendants to present their stories to a wide variety of audiences.
“We are extremely honoured that our campus is home to one of Naomi Blake’s sculptures “, said Joanne Greenaway, Chief Executive of LSJS. “It was such a privilege for us to hear Anita’s talk about her mother’s inspirational life and to learn the story behind the sculpture and the artist.”
