Samuel Bak lived with his parents Mitzia and Jonas Bak in Wilna (now Vilnius, Lithuania). His artistic talents were fostered from a young age. After German troops occupied Wilna in June 1941, Samuel Bak’s father had to perform forced labor. Samuel and his mother had to move into the ghetto, but managed to escape and find refuge in a Catholic convent. When the Germans sequestered the convent at the end of 1941, the Baks returned to the ghetto.
Jonas Bak was deployed in the Wehrmacht’s Army Vehicle Pool (HKP). He managed to bring his family into the HKP camp shortly before the ghetto was evacuated in 1943. In March 1944, ten-year-old Samuel Bak narrowly escaped a mass-murder of Jewish children. With his father’s help, Samuel Bak and his mother escaped from the camp. They hid in the Benedictine convent again until Wilna was liberated by the Soviet army in July 1944. Jonas Bak was shot dead during the HKP camp’s evacuation when the Germans retreated. Samuel and Mitzia Bak emigrated to Israel in 1948. Samuel Bak studied art and his paintings became known internationally.
Samuel Bak on the poet Avram Sutzkever’s lap, Wilna, 1944. Source: Publikation: Samuel Bak (2007): In Worte gemalt. Bildnis einer verlorenen Zeit, Weinheim und Basel
Samuel Bak painting his memories of the Wilna ghetto, in the DP camp in Landsberg am Lech, 1947. Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C., Film ID 142B
Samuel Bak with his grandfather Chone Jochel, Wilna, 1940. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
Samuel Bak, his mother Mitzia, and his stepfather Natan Markowsky in a Displaced Persons camp in Landsberg am Lech, 1947. Source: Publikation: Samuel Bak (2007): In Worte gemalt. Bildnis einer verlorenen Zeit, Weinheim und Basel
