More than seven decades later, the memories of war and despair are
still fresh for Nelly Toll. As an 6-year-old girl, she and her mother,
Rozia locked themselves in the tiny room of a Christian family's home in
1943 Nazi-occupied Lvov, Poland — present-day Lviv, Ukraine — for more
than a year.
Toll's younger brother had been taken by Nazi
forces two years prior when her family was forcibly moved to the city's
Jewish ghetto and, unknowingly to Toll and her mother at the time, her
father would soon be killed before he could fulfill his promise to
return to them.
In the small room, as a war raged outside her small window, Toll painted to pass the time.
"I painted a better world," Toll, now 80, told NBC News from her home in Vorhees, New Jersey, a Philadelphia suburb.
That world that Toll created in her imagination
was the antithesis of all she had ever known. It was magical and joyous,
and the subjects, most notably, were jovial and even careless in their
serene environments.
In "Girls in the Field," two girls are walking
through a lush green pasture with flowers. In another, Toll re-creates
the Cinderella fairy tale, but with a twist: A princess takes the place
of the mythical Prince Charming, inviting Cinderella — based on the
strong-willed female characters in Russian literature — to live in her
castle. There, Cinderella finds a pianist, who is meant to depict Toll's
mother, who soothes her with her music.
"I was very happy doing those pictures," Toll said. "I completely forgot where I was."
Toll's two watercolor paintings are part of the
"Art From the Holocaust" exhibit at the German Historical Museum in
Berlin. The exhibit, organized by the Holocaust memorial group Yad
Vashem, features 100 paintings, drawings and sketches from Toll and 52
other Holocaust-era artists. At least half of the artists were killed
during the war. Toll is the only living artist whose work is presented
at the exhibit.
The paintings, selected from an estimated 6,000 Holocaust-era
donated artworks, show life in the Jewish ghettos and Nazi concentration
camps of wartime Europe but others portray the resiliency of the Jewish
and, to a larger extent, human spirit.
"The portraits are portraits of beautiful
people, of proud people," Dorlis Blume, a director at the German
Historical Museum, told NBC News in Berlin. "Not of victims, or
destroyed people, as you usually see."
For these artists, supplies were scarce and
creating the art itself could get them killed. At least one of the
paintings in the exhibit was done on a potato sack for a canvas. But the
risk was worth it if it meant their stories could carry on, exhibit
curator Eliad Moreh-Rosenberg said.
"It was their hope that if they would not
survive, at least something of them would survive through their art,"
Moreh-Rosenberg said.
At the exhibit's opening in Berlin last month,
Toll alongside her husband, Herb, was granted an audience with German
Chancellor Angela Merkel. In front of the world's press, Toll looked at
ease with the world leader. They together posed in front of Toll's
paintings and even exchanged laughs. "She was just a joy!" Toll said.
For Toll, the exhibit serves as a reminder of the continent's
darkest days — something, she says, that might be difficult for young
people to grasp in peacetime Europe. She embodies that history.
At least one day a week, Toll teaches European
history at the University of Pennsylvania to students from all over the
world. And, all these years later, she continues to paint.
"It puts me at ease," Toll said as she painted
at an art studio near her home. "The art is a light into my soul, it's
been quite a journey
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