‘Joe Bach’ and the Holocaust

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day when we pledge to challenge the language of hatred, give voice to the voiceless and work to create a society free from persecution and hatred.

Whenever I think of the Holocaust I think of Josef Herman, Lidice and Ystradgynlais.  The full scale and horror of the Holocaust cannot begin to be understood until we look at the individual lives and individual communities which were destroyed across Europe and across the world.

I was brought up in the post-war period surrounded by mining communities which had played their full part in defeating the advance of Nazism and fascism.  Near to us was Ystradgynlais which had a unique place in that struggle.  In 1942 – 43 a film ‘The Silent Village’ was made there depicting the Nazi obliteration of the Czech mining village of Lidice where all the men were executed and all the women and children sent to concentration camps.

Two years later the artist Josef Herman arrived in Ystradgynlais.  I am proud to say that there is a belief in our family that my late father brought him from Neath Railway Station.  ‘Joe Bach’ as he became quickly known in the locality had fled Poland because of the rise of anti-Semitism across Europe.  His life in Wales is told in a very moving exhibition currently at Swansea County Hall.

Josef Herman stayed in Wales for eleven years, and like another great artist driven from his country by intolerance, Paul Robeson, he is for us a true Welshman, a citizen of our country.  We welcomed and embraced them both.  During his life in Ystradgynlais Josef Herman depicted on canvas the life of a Welsh mining community in his unique distinctively sombre yet very human way.

The true measure of his achievement in this period was in 1951 when he was commissioned by the organisers of the Festival of Britain to produce a mural which he called ‘Miners’.  This is one of the great artistic treasures of Wales, now located at the Glyn Vivian Art Gallery in Swansea.

As an artist he influenced many artists locally and internationally including my friend the Treforgan miner, Cyril Ifold some of whose work hangs in the South Wales Miners’ Library.  Cyril also designed the local Yniscedwyn miners’ banner which celebrates the universal values of music and social solidarity.

Today his influence endures through the inspirational work of the Ystradgynlais based Josef Herman Art Foundation Cymru Trust which does sterling work in encouraging local children to engage in artistic work and in so doing become aware of the talent and courage of one of the survivors of the Holocaust.

How many good decent people like Josef Herman perished because of the Holocaust?  In Wales, we remember them all through the life and work of Josef Herman, ‘Joe Bach’ of Ystradgynlais.

Dr Hywel Francis is MP for Aberavon and Chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights.  He is a Patron of the Josef Herman Trust.

Picture: ‘In the Pit’ by Josef Herman