Alicia Melamed Adams

Alicia Melamed Adams
Born
Alicja Bianka Goldschlag

(1927-09-26)26 September 1927
Borysław, Galicia, Second Polish Republic
Died22 October 2022(2022-10-22) (aged 95)
London, UK
Other namesAlicia Bianca Melamed Adams
Alicia Melamed
Alicja Mełamed [1]
EducationSaint Martin's School of Art, 1963
Sir John Cass School of Art
OrganisationUnited Society of Artists
Spouse
Adam Nathan Adams
​
​
(m. 1946; died 2020)​
Children1
Websitewww.aliciamelamed.com

Alicia Melamed Adams (née Alicja Goldschlag; 1927–2022) was a Polish painter and Holocaust survivor based in London.[2][3]

Early life

Alicja Bianka Goldschlag[a] was born on 26 September 1927 in Borysław, Second Polish Republic (present-day, Ukraine) to a Polish Jewish family.[4][3][5][6] Adams' father, Izydor Goldschlag (1885–1943), was petroleum engineer for the Vacuum Oil Company and her mother, Szarlotte Goldschlag (née Teicher; 1897–1943) was a designer.[3][4][6][7][8] Adams had one older brother, Józef (1923–1942).[5][7][8]

In the early 1930s Adams' father lost his job as a result of the Great Depression.[6] The Goldschlag family moved to live with her mother's family in Drohobycz (present-day Drohobych, Ukraine), whilst her father moved to Gdynia and started a fruit import business.[6][3] Adams first experienced antisemitism whilst living in Drohobycz.[6] Two years later the family relocated to Gdynia and in 1937 Adams' father started a business in selling oil mining machinery.[6] Following the outbreak of Second World War, Adams' father sent the family to Drohobych to live with her maternal grandparents.[6][3] Adams' father later returned to Drohobycz and worked at a local oil refinery.[6]

Adams was educated at the Polish gymnasium and studied drawing under Bruno Schulz, a family friend.[6][7] Following the annexation of Drohobycz into Ukrainian SSR, Adams joined the Young Pioneers.[6]

Holocaust

Occupation of Drohobycz

Following the occupation of Drohobycz in 1941, the Goldschlag family hid during the ensuing three day pogrom.[6] The family were forced into the Drohobycz Ghetto and Adams was forced to work carrying bricks on a building site by the Gestapo.[6][7][9] Whilst working at the building site Adams met Poldek Weiss whose father was a tailor for the Gestapo.[9][7] Adams was later forced to work as a cleaner for a Gestapo officer.[6]

In 1942, Adams' brother Józef died at Janowska concentration camp.[5][8] Adams and her family later lived and worked in a small recycling factory outside of the ghetto run by Viktor Kremin.[6]

Beskiden Labour Camp

On 24 July 1943, the family was transported to a local prison.[6] On 25 July 1943, Adams was released and transported to Beskiden Labour Camp by posing as the wife of Poldek Weiss, a forced labour at the Beskiden oil factory camp.[6][7] Adams' father and mother were shot on the 26 July 1943.[6][7]

Adams and Weiss were later transported to the Gestapo camp were Weiss's father worked, and managed to hide during the liquidation of the camp.[6] Adams and Weiss managed to escape and hid with a Ukrainian family.[6]

Following the liberation by Soviet Army, Adams lived with her uncle and the Weiss family in Drohobycz.[6] Adams later moved with the Weiss family to Wałbrzych.[6] Not wanting to marry Weiss and immigrate to Canada with the Weiss family, Adams moved to a nearby town to live with her uncle.[6]

London

In 1947, Adams and her husband temporarily moved Paris to prepare to immigrate to Israel, and for Adam Nathan Adams learnt to manufacture ties.[6][7][2][10] However, Adams became severely ill.[2][6][7] In 1950, Adams and her husband relocated to London.[2][6][7]

From 1960 to 1963, Adams studied at Saint Martin's School of Art where she befriended Fernando Montes and Lady Rachel Clay.[7] In 1963, Adams produced a series of paintings depicting her early life and the loss of her family and friends, which remained hidden in her studio until the 1980s.[7] Adams later attended Sir John Cass School of Art.[7]

In 1965, Adams joined the United Society of Artists.[7]

Personal life

In 1946, Adams met Izrael Natan Melamed (later Adam Nathan Adams; 1923–2020), a fellow Holocaust survivor.[2][3][6][10][11] The couple married three months later in Warsaw by Rabbi Dawid Kahane.[2][6] The couple had one son, born in 1951.[3][6]

Adams died on 22 October 2022 in London, aged 95.[2][3]

Notes

  1. ^ Anglicised as Alicia Bianca Goldschlag

References

  1. ^ "Alicja Mełamed". Centralny Komitet Żydów Polskich (CKŻP). Wydział Produktywizacji (Sygn. 303/XII) (in Polish). Washington D.C.: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "Work by Alicia Melamed Adams". Ben Uri Collection. London: Ben Uri Gallery & Museum. Retrieved 3 February 2026.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Weiner, Julia (9 February 2023). "Obituary: Alicia Melamed Adams". The Jewish Chronicle. London. Retrieved 4 February 2026.
  4. ^ a b "Żydowska społeczność Gdyni, spis alfabetyczny - nazwiska na literę "G"". Wirtualny Sztetl (in Polish). Warsaw: POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. Retrieved 5 February 2026.
  5. ^ a b c Bardgett, Suzanne (25 August 2011). "Alicia Melamed Adams – art as memorial to a murdered family". IWM Blog. London: Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 3 February 2026.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab Smith, Lyn E; Melamed Adams, Alicia Bianca (10 November 1998). "Interview with Alicia Bianca Melamed Adams". IWM Collections. London: Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 4 February 2026.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "Alicia Melamed-Adams artist". Ben Uri Research Unit. London: Ben Uri Gallery & Museum. Retrieved 3 February 2026.
  8. ^ a b c Wiszniewicz, Joanna; Melamed-Adams, Alicia (27 March 1996). "Interview 12917 [in Polish]". Visual History Archive. USC Shoah Foundation. Retrieved 4 February 2026.
  9. ^ a b Borden, Harry (2017). "The Biographies; Alicia Melamed Adams". Survivor: A Portrait of the Survivors of the Holocaust. London: Cassell. pp. 217–218. ISBN 978-1844039067. Retrieved 4 February 2026.
  10. ^ a b Borden, Harry (2017). "The Biographies; Adam Nathan Adams". Survivor: A Portrait of the Survivors of the Holocaust. London: Cassell. p. 218. ISBN 978-1844039067. Retrieved 4 February 2026.
  11. ^ Smith, Lyn E; Adams, Adam Nathan (3 February 1999). "Interview with Adam Nathan Adams". London: Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 4 February 2026.
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