תערוכה במוזיאון הלאומי פוזנן

Yossi Lemel presents an exhibition at the Poznań Museum.

Batya Lemel-Garfinkel was born in 1928 in Będzin. She is the daughter of Joseph and Jocheved Garfinkel, and grew up in an orthodox family of 12 people of the Radomsk Hasidic court. She had six sisters: Haya, Yentel, Sara, Fella, Rachel and Pearl. The family moved to 42 Modrzejowska Street where she grew up in 1934. With the outbreak of the Second World War and the military occupation of Będzin the family succeeded in staying together until March 1943 despite the harsh conditions. Batya was taken in the dark of night to the Glanau - Bad Kudowa labour camp and taken from there to Bielawa- Langebidau camp. In the beginning of January 1945 she was taken on a death march along with other female prisoners but managed to escape on the first night and hid in the forests disguised as a Christian girl by the name of Barbara Rutha in a village in the Sudetes. The entire Garfinkel family was deported to Auschwitz in the summer of 1943.

Batya moved to the city of Peterswaldau after the war and from there made Aliya to Israel in 1947. She enlisted with the paratroopers' unit of the IDF after the War of Independence.

Batya returned to her house on Modziovska Street with her son Yossi and her eight year old granddaughter, Noa, who was called " Moje Serce" –"my heart" in Polish – just the way Batya's mother called her.

Yossi Lemel, a poster artist, reconstructed his mother's memories and story with her six dead sisters, with the help of his daughter, Noa. In it is the story of the flat, the playground, the market, the street and the castle Zamek in the town of her childhood.

These days, Batya lives in Jerusalem with her husband Bernard Dov Lemel, who was her neighbor at 44 Modrzejowska Street while growing up. They have three children and nine grandchildren.

This story was exhibited in the Poznań National Museum in the summer of 2008 along with other political and social works of art created by Yossi Lemel in the past few years. They have been displayed in many places in the world.
Link to: Yossi Lemel exhibition at the National Museum Poznan, Poland