Photo de l'auteur

Toby Fluek (1926–2011)

Auteur de Memories Of My Life In A Polish Village, 1930-1949

2 oeuvres 140 utilisateurs 1 Critiques

A propos de l'auteur

Å’uvres de Toby Fluek

Étiqueté

Partage des connaissances

Date de naissance
1926-02-20
Date de décès
2011-06-03
Sexe
female
Nationalité
Poland (birth)
USA
Lieu de naissance
Czernica, Poland
Lieu du décès
West Orange, New Jersey, USA
Lieux de résidence
New York, New York, USA
Bronx, New York, USA
Professions
painter
artist
memoirist
Holocaust survivor
Courte biographie
Tonia "Toby" Fluek, née Knobel, was born to a Jewish family in the small village of Czernica, Poland. Her father Naftali Knobel was a potato and wheat farmer. She started to paint as a child, encouraged by her mother Genia to paint the farm. Their region was occupied first by Russia and then by Nazi Germany in World War II. In the fall of 1942, the family was forced into a Jewish ghetto in nearby Brody. Toby and her older sister Surcie fled the ghetto under cover of darkness and returned to Czernica, where they hid in the woods and survived with the help of some of their former neighbors. Surcie returned to the ghetto to encourage her parents to flee and took her mother out with her. Surcie was later separated from Toby and Genia and never seen again. Toby's father and her two other siblings all were killed. After the war, Toby and her mother were sent to multiple displaced persons camps, eventually making their way to Bad Wörishofen, Germany, where Genia was treated in the hospital while the pair waited to immigrate to the USA. During this time, Toby met and married her husband Max Fluek. They moved to the USA in 1949 and settled in the Bronx, New York, where their daughter Lillian was born. Toby continued with her artwork, despite not having taken a class until her 30s. Her body of work included paintings, charcoals, sketches, and drawings that largely drew on her memories of her childhood, before the start of World War II. She published two memoirs, Memories of My Life in a Polish Village (1990) and Passover As I Remember It (1994), both with her own illustrations. Toby also was featured in the 1981 documentary film Image Before My Eyes, and the 2008 film, Toby’s Sunshine: The Life and Art of Holocaust Survivor Toby Knobel Fluek. Her art collection was donated after her death to the Florida Holocaust Museum by her daughter Lilian Fluek Finkler.

Membres

Critiques

Reading, Fluek's "Memories of my life in a Polish village, 1930-1949" I had to slow down. In order to get the most out of this book I had to savor each page as long as it took to sink in me. There are several reasons for my recommendation for you to do the same. Each page has a reprint of one of the author's paintings or drawings. You have to take your time to explore the images in order to fully "get" them. Not to mention that the pictures in the first half of the book are fun to look at and explore. Part of the fun was the nostalgic atmosphere they emanated of the old world. By "old world" I refer to both Poland, part of Europe, and also "old" in the sense that these depict pre-Shoah scenes. The text accompanying each picture gives us the memories that inspired the artist to create them. They are written in a simple style using short sentences and not too many, carefully selected adjectives. This style amplifies the longing feeling one gets reading these passages for a simpler times.
In the first four chapters Fluek shows her family, Sabbath preparations, how they celebrated holidays and her family's neighbors. The second half of the book details the Russian and consequent German occupation and the eventual liberation. In the years covered here Fluek suffered from hunger, cold, loneliness, fear and by the end of the war she lost most of her family. The style of writing and painting did not change form the first half, thus the dissimilarity of the subject matter is providing sharp contrast. If you are ready to encounter the author's personal recollection of the Shoah do not skip the second half of the book. But, if you only want to submerge to Jewish life in a small Polish village life I recommend reading and looking through the first half.
… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
break | Jul 17, 2008 |

Prix et récompenses

Statistiques

Å’uvres
2
Membres
140
Popularité
#146,473
Critiques
1
ISBN
6
Langues
2

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