Sophia Kalski collection

Identifier: irn522726
Language of Description: English
Level of Description: Collection
Source: EHRI Partner

Web Source

https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn522726

Acquisition

The collection was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2005 by Sophia Kalski.

Scope and Content

The collection consists of paintings created by Sophia Kerpholz Kalski from 1981-1994 about her experiences in the ghettos in Lwow and Trembowla, Poland (Lviv and Terebovlia, Ukraine), and her life as a child living in hiding during the Holocaust.

Genre

Collection

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.

Child Items

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Displaying items 1 to 20 of 20

Abstract painting of a falling head by a former hidden child expressing her grief at the loss of her father in the Holocaust
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn522802
- English
- 1987
- overall: Height: 22.500 inches (57.15 cm) | Width: 18.750 inches (47.625 cm) | Depth: 1.375 inches (3.493 cm) pictorial area: Height: 18.875 inches (47.943 cm) | Width: 15.250 inches (38.735 cm)
- Updated 1 year ago
Oil painting created by Sophia Kerpholz Kalski in 1987 in memory of her father and the millions of other people who died during the Holocaust. It is a metaphorical work in primary colors depicting a male bust in silhouette floating against an abstract forest with flames and a fence below, suggesting a crematorium and the ghetto. The head is surrounded by bright red streaks; similar slashes of red appear in each painting. In early 1942, Sophia and her parents, Natan and Sarah, were imprisoned in the Jewish ghetto in Trembowla, Poland (Terebovlia, Ukraine), by the occupying Germans. Natan esc...
Painting by Sophia Kalski of a building fire she saw with her father in the Lwow ghetto
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn522803
- English
- 1984
- overall: Height: 17.500 inches (44.45 cm) | Width: 23.625 inches (60.008 cm) | Depth: 0.880 inches (2.235 cm) pictorial area: Height: 11.375 inches (28.893 cm) | Width: 17.375 inches (44.133 cm)
- Updated 1 year ago
Oil painting created by Sophia Kalski in 1984 about her life as a 9 year girl in the ghetto in Lwow, Poland (L’viv, Ukraine), from summer 1942 - March 1943. It depicts a bright red fire raging across a courtyard with multistory gray buildings as a man and a girl watch from a window across the yard. In Sophia's words: "Lwow aktion in the fall of 1942 that as a result of which, the ghetto was hermetically sealed. I was then nine and a half years old and I hid with my father and the rest of the inhabitants of the building. In hiding, we waited until the end of the aktion, and then the Nazis se...
Painting by Sophia Kalski based on her experiences as a young girl hiding in a secret room as German soldiers search for Jews
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn522804
- English
- overall: Height: 19.500 inches (49.53 cm) | Width: 23.375 inches (59.373 cm) | Depth: 1.500 inches (3.81 cm) pictorial area: Height: 15.375 inches (39.053 cm) | Width: 19.375 inches (49.213 cm)
- Updated 1 year ago
Oil painting created by Sophia Kalski in 1988 about her life as a 9 year girl in the ghetto in Lwow, Poland (L’viv, Ukraine), from summer 1942 - March 1943. It depicts 2 soldiers with flashlights searching near a basement room hidden behind a wall of green bottles that conceals a group of people. In Sophia’s words: "Aktion in Lwow on fifth and sixth of Jan. 1943. I am hiding in a bunker (basement) among strangers without my parents. The bunker is divided into two parts and the dividing wall is made of thick green bottles. The flashlight that the Germans are holding while they are searching ...
Painting by Sophia Kalski based on her experiences as a young girl looking through a window at a horsedrawn sleigh packed with dead bodies
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn522805
- English
- 1988
- overall: Height: 20.250 inches (51.435 cm) | Width: 28.125 inches (71.438 cm) | Depth: 1.125 inches (2.858 cm) pictorial area: Height: 15.375 inches (39.053 cm) | Width: 23.250 inches (59.055 cm)
- Updated 1 year ago
Oil painting created by Sophia Kalski in 1988 about her life as a 9 year girl in the ghetto in Lwow, Poland (L’viv, Ukraine), from summer 1942 - March 1943. It depicts a young blond haired girl with blond looking out a wood framed window at a horsedrawn cart filled with bleeding bodies. There is a long red slash of paint in the upper right. In Sophia’s words: "On Jan. 7, 1943, after the aktion in Lwow, I see through the window people picking up corpses to bring them to a mass grave. The collection of the corpses lasts a day or two approximately." In early 1942, Sophia and her parents, Natan...
Painting by Sophia Kalski based on her experiences as a young girl in a red dress watching children play a game in the Lwow ghetto
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn522806
- English
- 1987
- overall: Height: 20.500 inches (52.07 cm) | Width: 24.500 inches (62.23 cm) | Depth: 1.250 inches (3.175 cm) pictorial area: Height: 15.620 inches (39.675 cm) | Width: 19.620 inches (49.835 cm)
- Updated 1 year ago
Oil painting created by Sophia Kalski in 1987 about her life as a 9 year girl in the ghetto in Lwow, Poland (L’viv, Ukraine), from summer 1942 - March 1943. It depicts a blond haired girl in red dress looking out a large window in a white room at a line of children playing in a courtyard. In Sophia’s words: "Children play in the Lwow ghetto in the fall of 1942. Most of the time the children were inside without an opportunity to go out, and only when there was a moment of peace, the children would play in the courtyard under the supervision of their parents. The game that they were playing w...
Painting by Sophia Kalski based on her experiences as a young girl inside a room with a circle of charred bodies in the Lwow ghetto
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn522807
- English
- 1985
- overall: Height: 20.125 inches (51.118 cm) | Width: 24.500 inches (62.23 cm) | Depth: 1.500 inches (3.81 cm) pictorial area: Height: 15.500 inches (39.37 cm) | Width: 19.500 inches (49.53 cm)
- Updated 1 year ago
Oil painting created by Sophia Kalski in 1987 about her life as a 9 year girl in the ghetto in Lwow, Poland (L’viv, Ukraine), from summer 1942 - March 1943. It depicts a young blond haired girl standing near a circle of burned bodies in front a brightly lit doorway. In Sophia’s words: "Death of the martyrs. In the beginning of Jan. 1943, there was an aktion in the Lwow ghetto in a house near us. He decided to die and not to be caught by the Germans. All the entrances to the building were sealed and they didn't let the Germans enter. The Germans set the house on fire with all the people insi...
Painting by Sophia Kalski based on her experiences as a young girl standing alone at the Lwow ghetto fence in the falling snow
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn522808
- English
- 1986
- overall: Height: 18.750 inches (47.625 cm) | Width: 22.750 inches (57.785 cm) | Depth: 1.375 inches (3.493 cm) pictorial area: Height: 15.250 inches (38.735 cm) | Width: 19.250 inches (48.895 cm)
- Updated 1 year ago
Oil painting created by Sophia Kalski in 1987 about her life as a 9 year girl in the ghetto in Lwow, Poland (L’viv, Ukraine), from summer 1942 - March 1943. It depicts a young blond haired girl standing in the snow with a line of people in front of a barbed wire topped fence. In Sophia’s words: "Lwow, winter 1943. I walk round and round all alone in the streets and I don't know - should I go left or right..." In early 1942, Sophia and her parents, Natan and Sarah, were imprisoned in the Jewish ghetto in Trembowla, Poland (Terebovlia, Ukraine), by the occupying Germans. Natan escaped to Lwow...
Painting by Sophia Kalski based on her experiences as a young girl exhausted and alone in a bare room in the Lwow ghetto
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn522809
- English
- 1987
- overall: Height: 17.625 inches (44.768 cm) | Width: 21.500 inches (54.61 cm) | Depth: 1.125 inches (2.858 cm) pictorial area: Height: 13.375 inches (33.973 cm) | Width: 17.375 inches (44.133 cm)
- Updated 1 year ago
Oil painting created by Sophia Kalski in 1987 about her life as a 9 year girl in the ghetto in Lwow, Poland (L’viv, Ukraine), from summer 1942 - March 1943. It depicts a small blond haired girl curled up on the wood floor in an empty room. In Sophia’s words: "February 1943 - I reached some apartment. I hid my shoes which were too small for me and my coat. I am very hungry and exhausted. There is no one with me. I long to put my head on my father's shoulder, but he isn't anymore. I put my head on a crate that was in the empty room." In early 1942, Sophia and her parents, Natan and Sarah, wer...
Painting by Sophia Kalski based on her experiences as a young girl with her father in a restaurant in the Lwow ghetto
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn522810
- English
- 1985
- overall: Height: 20.125 inches (51.118 cm) | Width: 24.375 inches (61.913 cm) | Depth: 1.500 inches (3.81 cm) pictorial area: Height: 15.500 inches (39.37 cm) | Width: 19.500 inches (49.53 cm)
- Updated 1 year ago
Oil painting created by Sophia Kalski in 1985 about her life as a 9 year girl in the ghetto in Lwow, Poland (L’viv, Ukraine), from summer 1942 - March 1943. Based on a day from December 1942, it depicts the view, from the outside looking in, through the large square window of a dark brown wooden building of a young girl and man seated at a table. The roof is snow covered, and there is a long dripping streak of red paint on the left. In Sophia’s words: "The restaurant. In the beginning Dec. 1942, we had nothing. We sold each one of our possessions, and with the money that we received for the...
Painting by Sophia Kalski based on her experiences as a young girl visiting friends in a sparsely furnished interior in the Lwow ghetto
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn522811
- English
- overall: Height: 18.625 inches (47.308 cm) | Width: 22.500 inches (57.15 cm) | Depth: 1.125 inches (2.858 cm) pictorial area: Height: 15.250 inches (38.735 cm) | Width: 19.250 inches (48.895 cm)
- Updated 1 year ago
Oil painting created by Sophia Kalski after 1980 about her life as a 9 year girl n the ghetto in Lwow, Poland (L’viv, Ukraine), from summer 1942 - March 1943. It depicts In Sophia’s word: "Slice of bread. Lwow ghetto in the winter of 1943. During one of the visits with a friend of my father in the ghetto, I didn't eat anything on this particular day and probably they saw the hunger in my face because my father's friend asked me if I ate something that day, and I lied and said yes. He had one thin slice of bread that he smuggled from forced labor with the Germans, that he wanted to divide th...
Painting by Sophia Kalski based on her childhood experiences when she hid with a group of people in a basement as soldiers searched upstairs
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn522812
- English
- 1985
- overall: Height: 23.750 inches (60.325 cm) | Width: 28.750 inches (73.025 cm) | Depth: 0.880 inches (2.235 cm) pictorial area: Height: 17.500 inches (44.45 cm) | Width: 23.500 inches (59.69 cm)
- Updated 1 year ago
Oil painting created by Sophia Kalski in 1985 about her life as a 9 year girl n the ghetto in Lwow, Poland (L’viv, Ukraine), from summer 1942 - March 1943. Based on an event from February 1943, it depicts a blond haired girl in a blue dress sitting with a group of people in an underground room as men dressed in green uniforms walk across the floor above. There is a long, suspended, streak of red paint dripping not the bunker. In Sophia’s words: "Feb. 1943. Aktion in the Lwow ghetto. We are in the bunker." In early 1942, Sophia and her parents, Natan and Sarah, were imprisoned in the Jewish ...
Painting by Sophia Kalski based on her experiences as a young child finding refuge following the death of her father in the Lwow ghetto
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn522813
- English
- 1985
- overall: Height: 20.625 inches (52.388 cm) | Width: 24.875 inches (63.183 cm) | Depth: 1.250 inches (3.175 cm) pictorial area: Height: 12.250 inches (31.115 cm) | Width: 19.250 inches (48.895 cm)
- Updated 1 year ago
Oil painting created by Sophia Kalski in 1985 about her life as a 9 year girl n the ghetto in Lwow, Poland (L’viv, Ukraine), from summer 1942 - March 1943. Based on a day in March 1943, it depicts a young blond haired girl, sleeping atop a table, with her head on a red pillow, wearing a red dress, covered with a blue coat; floating above her head is a dream image of a man’s bust in a green uniform. In the upper right is red streak of red paint with a jagged bottom. In Sophia’s words: "I received a bed, March 1943, Lwow ghetto. I am alone, no parents and no home. I lived with three families ...
Painting by Sophia Kalski based on her experiences as a young child hiding behind a door as soldiers searched a room in the Lwow ghetto
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn522814
- English
- overall: Height: 23.000 inches (58.42 cm) | Width: 29.000 inches (73.66 cm) | Depth: 1.125 inches (2.858 cm) pictorial area: Height: 19.000 inches (48.26 cm) | Width: 25.000 inches (63.5 cm)
- Updated 1 year ago
Oil painting created by Sophia Kalski around 1990 about her life as a 9 year girl n the ghetto in Lwow, Poland (L’viv, Ukraine), from summer 1942 - March 1943. It depicts a blond haired girl in a blue dress hiding behind a white door. She is unseen by the 3 green uniformed soldiers searching the room, though we can see her a keyhole shape opening carved in the door. There is a gash of red paint in the upper right corner. In Sophia’s words: "In the winter of 1943, in the city of Lwow, during the aktion, I didn't have time to hide in the bunker or in the basement and I was forced to hide behi...
Painting by Sophia Kalski picturing her escape through the Lwow ghetto fence when she was a young child
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn522816
- English
- overall: Height: 24.875 inches (63.183 cm) | Width: 30.750 inches (78.105 cm) | Depth: 1.375 inches (3.493 cm) pictorial area: Height: 19.500 inches (49.53 cm) | Width: 25.125 inches (63.818 cm)
- Updated 1 year ago
Oil painting created by Sophia Kalski in 1985 about her escape from the Lwow ghetto at age 10 through the wooden fence and behind the backs of the German guards in March 1943. In Sophia's words: "Escape from Lwow ghetto, end of Mar. 1943. Zamarstynowska #1. The Germans are in the street and I'm running. I was told that through the fourth post in the fence I will be able to leave. I reached the fence, I counted four posts. In the moment the German turned his back, I discovered the hole in the fence and with the speed of lightening, I passed through this hole to the other side, the Aryan side...
Painting by Sophia Kalski of a young girl hiding in an underground bunker with a group of men, women, and children
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn522817
- English
- overall: Height: 20.750 inches (52.705 cm) | Width: 24.875 inches (63.183 cm) | Depth: 1.250 inches (3.175 cm) pictorial area: Height: 15.250 inches (38.735 cm) | Width: 19.375 inches (49.213 cm)
- Updated 1 year ago
Oil painting created by Sophia Kalski in 1985 about one day in her life as a 10 year girl n the ghetto in Trembowla, Poland (Terebovlia, Ukraine), on April 7, 1943. It depicts a long, narrow, rectangular space, filled with long line of children, men, and women, sandwiched between 2 thick sections of light brown dirt. There is a jagged slash of red paint in the upper right corner. In Sophia’s words: "In this painting, part of a bunker is seen and in it, people hiding. Outside, the aktion was going on full force for a whole day on Apr. 7, 1943. In my hometown of Trembowla in Galicia, among th...
Painting by Sophia Kalski of a young girl watching 4 men carry a woman shot to death by the Germans in the Trembowla ghetto
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn522818
- English
- 1987
- overall: Height: 18.875 inches (47.943 cm) | Width: 23.000 inches (58.42 cm) | Depth: 1.375 inches (3.493 cm) pictorial area: Height: 15.500 inches (39.37 cm) | Width: 19.625 inches (49.848 cm)
- Updated 1 year ago
Oil painting created by Sophia Kalski in 1987 about her life as a 10 year girl in the ghetto in Trembowla, Poland (Terebovlia, Ukraine), in April 1943. It depicts a young blond haired girl watching 4 men carry the dead body of a woman dripping blood from a blue blanket. There is a slash of red paint in the upper right. In Sophia’s words: "Murder in the street. In Trembowla ghetto, in the spring of 1943. A woman walked in the ghetto and all of a sudden, a German murdered her for no reason. Hearing the screaming, I walked out and I saw four policemen removing her wrapped in a blanket and drop...
Painting by Sophia Kalski of the grove of trees where she and her mother hid after escaping the Trembowla ghetto
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn522819
- English
- 1982
- overall: Height: 20.750 inches (52.705 cm) | Width: 16.750 inches (42.545 cm) | Depth: 1.125 inches (2.858 cm) pictorial area: Height: 13.625 inches (34.608 cm) | Width: 9.750 inches (24.765 cm)
- Updated 1 year ago
Oil painting created by Sophia Kalski in 1982 about her escape as a 10 year old girl with her mother from the ghetto in Trembowla, Poland (Terebovlia, Ukraine) in the summer of 1943. It depicts the grove of trees through which she and her mother fled after their escape. In Sophia’s words: "Picture of eastern European forest, green, dark and moist. I walked from the field near Trembowla together with my mother to the village Umniska - this was at night in the summer 1943." In early 1942, Sophia and her parents, Natan and Sarah, were imprisoned in the Jewish ghetto in Trembowla, Poland (Tereb...
Painting by Sophia Kalski of a young girl and her mother with their rescuers in a wheatfield after their escape from the ghetto
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn522820
- English
- 1985
- overall: Height: 17.500 inches (44.45 cm) | Width: 23.625 inches (60.008 cm) | Depth: 0.875 inches (2.223 cm) pictorial area: Height: 11.375 inches (28.893 cm) | Width: 17.375 inches (44.133 cm)
- Updated 1 year ago
Oil painting created by Sophia Kalski in 1985 depicting herself at 10 years of age with her mother, Sarah Kerpholz. They are sitting on a blanket with the woman and her children who gave them a place to hide after their escape from the ghetto in Trembowla, Poland (Terebovlia, Ukraine), in summer 1943. In Sophia’s words: "After the liquidation of Trembowla, I escaped with my mother to the wheat field and we met there a woman with two children. We lived together with this woman and her children for a few weeks, and then we parted ways, and I and my mother went to a different village. After th...
Painting by Sophia Kalski expressing how she felt when she was a young girl imprisoned in the ghettos
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn522821
- English
- 1994
- overall: Height: 27.625 inches (70.168 cm) | Width: 21.500 inches (54.61 cm) | Depth: 0.625 inches (1.588 cm)
- Updated 1 year ago
Oil painting created by Sophia Kalski in 1985 about her life as a 9 year girl n the ghettos in Lwow and Trembowla, Poland (L’viv and Terebovlia, Ukraine), from summer 1942 - summer 1943. It shows a young blond haired girl in a blue dress with a worn and distressed facial expression. In Sophia’s words inscribed in painting: "I always see myself as a small girl. The small girl in me. I feel it cannot change. Even at the beginning of old age, I remember her - the little girl. I identify with her image and everything else I push away. Everything else I push away, there is a great denial in me, ...
Painting by Sophia Kalski of a young girl sitting with raised fists on a trash heap of discarded objects surrounded by oversized burning candles
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn522822
- English
- 1987
- overall: Height: 23.500 inches (59.69 cm) | Width: 27.500 inches (69.85 cm) | Depth: 1.000 inches (2.54 cm) pictorial area: Height: 19.000 inches (48.26 cm) | Width: 23.000 inches (58.42 cm)
- Updated 1 year ago
Oil painting created by Sophia Kalski in 1987 expressing her sorrow and anger over what was lost by the 9 year Sophia due to her experiences in the Holocaust, imprisonment in the ghettos in Lwow and Trembowla, Poland (Lviv and Terebovlia, Ukraine), from 1942-1943, then in hiding in a village barn. In early 1942, Sophia and her parents, Natan and Sarah, were imprisoned in the Jewish ghetto in Trembowla, Poland (Terebovlia, Ukraine), by the occupying Germans. Natan escaped to Lwow, and Sophia was sent to live with him. In January 1943, Natan, died of typhus. Ten year old Sophia was on her own...