Toby Knobel Fluek

Toby Fluek (née Knobel; 20 February 1926 – 3 June 2011) was a Jewish artist born in Poland who survived the Holocaust by avoiding capture by the Nazis before emigrating to the United States after World War II. After settling in New York in 1949, Fluek began her career as an artist, painting and illustrating her memories of life before, during, and after the Nazi invasion. She published two books and is featured in two films, one of which she is the subject of. After her death in 2011, Fluek's daughter, Lillian Fluek Finkler, donated her mother's body of work—over 500 drawings, paintings, photographs, and ephemera—to the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida where it is held as part of the museum's permanent collection.

Early life Fluek was born Toby Knobel in Czernica, Poland on 20 February 1926. She was the youngest of four children in an Orthodox Jewish family. Her father was a potato and wheat farmer and her family was one of ten Jewish families in a village of about two hundred and fifty families of Polish and Ukrainian heritage. Their home and life were modest—Fluek describes their bathing ritual: "One towel was used by six." A year later her daughter, Lillian, was born. Her body of work includes paintings, charcoals, sketches, and drawings that largely draw on her memories of her childhood, before the start of World War II, including religious celebrations, but also include portraits of relatives, still lifes, landscapes, and design motifs. Fluek published two memoirs: Memories of My Life in a Polish Village (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1990, ), and Passover As I Remember It (Alfred A. Knopf, 1994, ). Both books are written and illustrated by Fluek, with her daughter, Lillian Fluek Finkler, listed as a contributing author on the latter. Fluek's art was featured in the 1981 documentary film, Image Before My Eyes, and is the subject of the 2008 film, Toby’s Sunshine: The Life and Art of Holocaust Survivor Toby Knobel Fluek, produced by Dr. Rakhmiel Peltz.

Fluek created much of her art from memory but used photographs of models as aids. The photographs, including many of herself and some from a trip to Poland to document rural village life, are contained in the artist's personal archive and now reside at the Florida Holocaust Museum in their permanent collection.

Death and Donation to the Florida Holocaust Museum Fluek died on June 3, 2011, at the age of 85, in West Orange, New Jersey. She was predeceased by her husband, leaving her body of work to her daughter, Lillian Fluek Finkler. Finkler searched for a museum to house her mother's art before deciding on the Florida Holocaust Museum, which had years earlier showcased Fluek's art in a temporary exhibition. The Florida Holocaust Museum received the donation in 2018 and has begun the work of processing the collection of over 500 pieces of art, documents, and ephemera into its permanent collection, though a date for exhibition has not been set.