NAOMI BLAKE, who was a sculptor, an Auschwitz survivor and a human rights campaigner died in 2020 aged 94. She had the most incredible life-story. In spite of her Holocaust experiences, Naomi believed “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 worthwhile surviving”, thus proving her affirmation of hope and faith in humanity.
She was born as Naomi Dum in the former Czechoslovakia, the youngest of the ten children. Most of the family did not survive the war but she and her sister were put to work in a munitions factory where they learned to sabotage the bombs they were making. After their camp was liberated, they managed to escape from a death march while being fired upon by retreating German soldiers. She made her way to Palestine where she was imprisoned by the British and later helped to defend the new sate of Israel. She was wounded by shrapnel while a sub-lieutenant in the IDF. She met and married a German refugee, Asher Blake and they moved to Britain where she learned to sculpt. She is widely exhibited, with 50 of her works currently on public display all over Britain. They include Norwich, Bristol and Portsmouth Cathedrals, Great Ormond Street Hospital and Norris Lea, Kingsbury, Oxford and Leeds Synagogues. Her sculptures are also in The Hebrew and Tel Aviv Universities.
I'm listening to The Kinks singing Ray Davies's evergreen piece of social commentary, The Village Green Preservation Society. You can here it here.
