Overview
- Brief Narrative
- Pencil portrait of Roza Holcman created by Jozia Berko in March 15, 1944, when both women were political prisoners in a Soviet labor camp in Samarka (Temritau), Kazakhstan. Jozia was an underground delegate for the Polish Government in Exile. She was imprisoned by the Soviets at the camp by 1944 and died there in the late 1940s. Roza was arrested by the Soviets in 1942 for doing military recruitment for the Polish Home Army in the east and sentenced to fifteen years. She had a daughter, Aurelia, in November 1944, with an American medic, Phillip Rosenblith, who was later transferred to Moscow and killed. Jozia's mother, Liza, obtained a permit to take the baby out of the camp when she was 11 months old. Roza was released from the camp in 1955, and joined Liza and Aurelia in Warsaw.
- Artwork Title
- Portrait of Roza Holcman
- Date
-
creation:
1944 March 15
- Geography
-
creation:
Soviet labor camp;
Temirtau (Kazakhstan)
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Aurelia Holcman Vogel
- Signature
- front lower right corner, pencil : illegible
- Contributor
-
Subject:
Aurelia L. Vogel
Artist: Jozia Berko
Subject: Jozia Berko
Subject: Roza Holcman
- Biography
-
Aurelia Lusia Holcman was born on November 21, 1944, to Roza Holcman in a Soviet labor camp in Samarka, Kazakhstan, where her mother was sentenced to serve 15 years for pro-Polish political activities. Her father was Phillip Rosenblith, who was an American medic at the camp. He was eventually sent to Moscow where he was killed. Aurelia lived at the camp until her grandmother, Liza Rosenberg Holcman, was able to obtain a permit from the NKVD, the Soviet security and secret police apparatus, to take the baby out of the camp. Eleven month old Aurelia was very sick at this time and they first settled in Moscow. Aurelia and her grandmother then went or were possibly repatriated to Warsaw at the end of 1946. Her mother and grandmother were originally from Plock, Poland. Roza was released from the camp in 1955 and returned to her mother and child in Warsaw. Liza died in 1975. At some point, Aurelia immigrated to Sweden.
Jozia Berko worked as an underground delegate for the Polish Government in Exile which was formed in London following the German and Soviet occupations of Poland in 1939. She was imprisoned in a Soviet labor camp in Samaraka, Kazakhstan, by 1944 and died there in the late 1940s.
Roza Holcman was born to Abraham Chaim and Liza Lea Rosenberg Holcman on July 21, 1910, in Czerwińsk nad Wisłą, Poland. Roza was a lawyer. When Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, Roza and her mother fled Plock and headed east to the Crimea in the Soviet Union. Roza did work for the Polish Government in Exile which was based in London and was represented by underground delegates. Roza tried to enlist soldiers into the Polish Home Army in the east. In 1942, she was arrested and was sentenced to fifteen years in a Soviet labor camp in Samarka, Kazakhstan. It was there in 1943 that she met Phillip Rosenblith, an American dentist who served as a medic. He was later taken to Moscow where he was killed. Roza had a daughter, Aurelia Holcman, who was born at the camp on November 21, 1944. Her mother, Liza, was able to get a permit from the NKVD, the Soviet security service, signed by Molotov, to take the baby out of the camp when she was 11 months old. They went to Moscow and in 1946, returned to Poland. Roza was released from the camp in 1955, and joined Liza and Aurelia in Warsaw.
Physical Details
- Classification
-
Art
- Category
-
Drawings
- Object Type
-
Portrait drawing (lcsh)
- Physical Description
- Portrait drawing in pencil on rectangular light brown paper of a young woman in left profile with curly hair secured by a headband and wearing a collared shirt. It is signed and dated on the reverse.
- Dimensions
- overall: Height: 12.000 inches (30.48 cm) | Width: 8.500 inches (21.59 cm)
- Materials
- overall : paper, graphite
- Inscription
- front lower left corner, pencil : 5/III 44
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- No restrictions on access
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- Forced labor--Soviet Union. Political prisoners--Soviet Union--Pictorial works. Political prisoners--Poland--Pictorial works. Prisoners as artists--Soviet Union--Pictorial works. Prisoners of war in art--Pictorial works. World War, 1939-1945--Conscript labor--Soviet Union. World War, 1939-1945--Prisoners and prisons, Russian.
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The drawing was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2007 by Aurelia Holcman Vogel, the daughter of Roza Holcman.
- Record last modified:
- 2024-01-17 12:01:25
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn523243
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