Gela Seksztajn (1907-1943; Also known as Gele Seckstein); Polish-Jewish artist and painter. Known mostly for her portraits and other paintings hidden within the Ringelblum Archive, in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust. The paintings were found after the end of World War II, and are now held mostly in the archive of the Jewish Historical Institute, in Warsaw, Poland. Born in Warsaw in a working-class family. Her father was a cobbler; her mother died in 1918. The writer Joshua Singer discovered her talent. Through him she met actor and director Jonas Turkow, who introduced her in turn to the sculptor Henryk Kuna. Thanks to Kuna's help, she received a 2-month scholarship to study in the ASP in Krakow. Gela paid her benefactors back in the 1930s by drawing their portraits. Gela spent about 13 years in Krakow; according to her own testimony, she studied in the Academy for two years, but her name was not recorded in any of the enrollment lists of the school's archives. Starting in 1931, she visited Warsaw regularly to display her work in group exhibitions several times during the 1930s, and she moved to Warsaw in 1937. She was a member of the Association of Jewish Artists, and the Jewish Society of Fine Arts, both in Warsaw. During this period she painted numerous portraits of Jewish figures in Warsaw, mostly intellectuals and writers, including Rachela Korn, Baruch Gelman, Szymon Horonczyk, Icyk Manger and Moshe Broderson. Gela moved to Warsaw in 1937. She married the journalist Izrael Lichtensztejn in 1938. During those years she worked as a teacher of arts and handicrafts in Jewish schools. During the late 1930s she painted a large number of portraits and scenes. She participated in several exhibitions and received good reviews during these years. ...The exact date of Gela's death is unknown, but it is believed that she was still alive at the end of the ghetto in 1943, during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gela_Seksztajn] undefined

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