Did you know... Holocaust Memorial Day and Naomi Blake

Wednesday 27 January is Holocaust Memorial Day. Marking the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp. This Memorial Day encourages everyone to reflect on the depths to which humanity can sink - unless we remain vigilant. It reminds us too of the endurance of those individuals and communities who have suffered persecution over the years.

One of the Cathedral’s treasured objects is a sculpture, ‘Family Group’ (1997) by Naomi Blake (1924  - 2018), sculptor and Holocaust survivor. She was born Zisel (meaning sweet) Dum in Mukachevo, Czechoslovakia in March 1924, and her Jewish community (comprising 50% of the population) was persecuted from 1938. In 1944, her family were moved to a ghetto, then sent to Auschwitz. From there she and her sister were transferred to a labour camp, to work in a munitions factory. She remembered local residents sneaking them food.

In 1942 Naomi’s extended family comprised 32:  4 grandparents, her parents, 9 siblings, 6 spouses, 10 young nephews & nieces. By 1945, only 8 remained. She and her sister returned home, but she later left for Israel where she joined the Palmach defending the borders. She was wounded in the neck by British shrapnel, recovered and joined the Israeli army.

She changed her name to Naomi in 1948, married Asher Blake in 1952, moved to London and began studying at the Hornsey School of Art in 1955 - exhibiting her work from 1962. Her sculpture ‘Family Group’ was last exhibited in Portsmouth Cathedral in September 2018, during the Heritage Open Days weekends whose theme was ‘Extraordinary Women’.

Naomi dedicated her work to highlighting the six million slaughtered Jews (1940 - 1945) while focussing on life’s positives. She wrote: ‘There is something positive in the human figure - there is a lot of good in people .... with my past, if I were pessimistic, somehow it wouldn’t have been worth surviving.’