Chaim Kaliski Exhibition: "Jim d’Etterbeek" at the Museum of Jewish Art and History

As the eldest of four children, Chaïm Kaliski was born in Brussels in 1929 into a Polish Jewish family. His father, Abraham, was a leatherworker, and his mother, Fradla, a seamstress. The German occupation of Belgium in May 1940 upended their lives. What followed was a life of miraculous survival, as they managed to evade inspections, denunciations, and the massive roundup of the Cureghem Jewish neighborhood on September 3, 1942. However, Abraham was arrested on February 12, 1944. Fradla then succeeded in hiding her younger children and herself with Chaïm until their liberation in September 1944.

For Chaïm, life came to a halt the day his father was arrested, a trauma he would carry with him for the rest of his days. It wasn't until he was sixty, in 1989, that, guided by his sister Sarah—an accomplished painter—he began to visually recount their story. Over the course of eighteen years, he dedicated himself to creating thousands of drawings, transforming his pain into art.

The line, at first glance childlike, is nonetheless powerful: scenes of arrests and raids that haunt the artist, forever branded as a “hidden child,” scarred by fear and anxiety etched into his memory. Primarily rendered in Indian ink, these poignant illustrations combine text and image. They are “very visceral” drawings, evoking cries of terror, screams, the roar of trucks engines, and the clatter of weapons during raids—creating a whirlwind of chaos. Overlaid are recurring refrains, like haunting chants. Through conversations between the artist’s father and acquaintances he encounters during his wanderings, the viewer witnesses a Jewish community on the brink of annihilation.

The drawings by Chaïm Kaliski offer a poignant chronicle of a Jewish childhood and serve as an incredibly detailed testament to the lives of Brussels’ Jewish community under occupation. An exemplary piece of outsider art, his work reflects the talent of a man with an extraordinary memory and a vast historical knowledge, which is evident throughout the 120 pieces displayed in this inaugural monographic exhibition held in France.