Charyton's Holocaust Memoir - My Youth in Wysokie Litewskie

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Charyton's Holocaust Memoir

My Youth in Wysokie Litewskie
I spent my youth in the town of Wysokie Litewskie, Brest District. I went to elementary school there. I made my first friendships in Wysokie, and formed my artistic interests. My young Jewish friends liked me and I was absorbed into their cultural lives. I painted for them; my first landscapes hung on the walls of their homes. I helped paint the sets and decorations of the amateur theatre, so much so that never a production went forward without my contribution.

I had many friends in the community. One lasted to the very end – my friendship with Mojżesz (Moses) Teitelbaum, a poet and short-story writer, whose works were already published in Jewish magazines. Even though I left to study at the Academy of Arts in Cracow, I kept in contact with my friends in Wysokie. During summer vacation, I returned to continue our long discussions of various themes of importance to the inner life of our generation. I got to know the customs of my Jewish friends, I was at their feasts during holidays. I was invited to them and participated in their joys and sorrows, entertainments. I was not a stranger to their loves and longings, full of specific folklore -- an exotic weave of local and Middle-Eastern elements.

By then I had acquired some significant skill, and I used it to paint scenes of the local marketplaces, and to capture typical characteristics of the people I saw at the markets.

At the same time I got to know Kamenets Litewski, where there was an Academia Duchowna [4]. Students at the Academy included young people from the countries of Western Europe. That gave me the opportunity to draw differing types [5] -- not an easy task.

Translator's Notes:

[4] By implication, a school for training rabbis.

[5] Types was a common term used by European artists to denote people of differing stations of life, often with interesting appearances, worthy of being depicted in an artistic work.

Page Last Updated: 22-Dec-2009