Haim Chalef (b. 1921? in Grodno, d. 1979?) – painter, wood carver, engraver, partisan during the Second World War.
He belongs to the long list of artists unknown in the city in which he lived and worked for many years. The artist was born in the family of Elka and Barukh Chalef.Haim, who was the author of two exhibitions in Białystok in 1936, was dubbed in the press as “self-taught and working-class”. At the spring exhibition he presented wood engravings, landscape sculptures and portraits.
In 1937 Haim married Jaffa Waynick. The couple moved in at 5 Jurowiecka Street. Jaffa came from the family of Orthodox Jews from Kovna, originally from Leeds. In September 1939 Haim, as a Polish soldier, took part in the defense war. Jaffa, convinced that her young husband had been killed, returned to her parents in Kovna, and two years later remarried. She gave birth to a son whom she named Haim, in memory of her first husband. Meanwhile, Haim survived the September Campaign and soon afterwards was seized by the Germans and sent to Auschwitz. He got involved in a relationship with a woman from Lublin. Unfortunately, his second wife and their child, son Benjamin, did not survive the war. Only Haim managed to survive, due mostly to his artistic talents. He engraved SS officers’ portraits in wood, which they then sent off to their wives or fiancées. In return, Chalef was given bread and small privileges, which allowed him to plan an escape from the camp. Having successfully escaped, he joined partisan groups, and in 1942 returned to Białystok in order to encourage Jews to escape from the ghetto (according to Rafael Rajzer’s testimony). Owing to his military experience, Chalef became Szymon Datner’s assistant, and together they remained active in the forests surrounding Białystok.
In 1945 Haim Chalef left for Lublin in the search for his second wife. Unexpectedly, he met his first wife, Jaffa. They decided to move to Rome, where for 3 years Haim taught art in the Jewish refugee organizations. In December 1945 their son, Avraham Chalef (Abe Chalef, 1945-2008) was born.
After 3 years in Rome, the family moved to Melbourne, Australia. Initially they lived in East Brunswick, subsequently moving to Elwood. In the early 1970s Haim and Jaffa joined their son Abe in Jerusalem, where he had moved several years earlier. Haim Chalef is buried in Jerusalem.
Joanna Tomalska
