« TO CREATE IS TO RESIST »

Boris Taslitzky stated « My whole life has been influenced by war and that significantly influenced my militant and artistic life »¹ .

Boris' father, Simon, was an engineer of Russian origin and became a refugee in France as a result of the 1905 revolution failure. He voluntarily joined the army in the 169th infantry division. On July 13th 1915 he stepped on a mine with his fighting group and was killed. Boris' mother, Anna Taslizky, also a Russian refugee, was a tailor. She was arrested in the Vel d'Hiv Roundup in 1942 and was later deported and murdered in the concentration camp of Auschwitz.

Orphaned from his father at the age of three, Boris is thus a victim of First World War, yet became a hero in the Second World War. His resilience and commitment to the Resistance took strength and honor of the utmost degree

His work with the Resistance did not subside during his imprisonment in the jail of Vichy nor in the concentration camp of Buchenwald. Boris was an artist and as such even in the bleakest physical situations, he used drawing as means to witness and to resist. His mantra of sorts was : « to create is to resist! »²

Many of his drawings have since been lost, others were saved. A large number of them are preserved in the Museum of National Resistance of Champigny-sur-Marne.

Isabelle ROLLIN-ROYER