Painting hidden from Nazis in WWII labour camp is restored to its former glory

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In emotional scenes on the BBC One hit The Repair Shop, Maria Kirk brings in the creased, cracked and discoloured 19th century Madonna and Child

Maria Kirk (left) with the painting on The Repair Shop (

Image: BBC)

A painting hidden from Nazis in a coat lining during the Second World War is restored on The Repair Shop.

In emotional scenes on the BBC One hit presented by Jay Blades, 74-year-old Maria Kirk brings in the creased, cracked and discoloured 19th century Madonna and Child.

She calls the painting, her only connection to her Ukrainian family, a “beacon of peace”.

The artwork once hung in the village church in Skowiatyn, Western Ukraine, where her family lived. It was given to her grandfather by his father when he was ordained as a Catholic priest in around 1880.

At the outbreak of the war, desperate to keep a link to their home and family, the Bilinska family took the painting.

Maria’s mother Irena (centre) with other family members (

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Collect)

Maria says: “My grandfather Joseph had died.

“My grandmother Halyna, mother Irena and aunt Stefania fled to Poland The Russians were coming on one side and the Germans on the other.

“They decided to take the painting. They took it out of the frame, rolled it up and stitched it inside the lining of a winter coat.

“Eventually they were all captured by the Germans and sent to a forced labour camp in Northern Germany.

“They kept swapping the coat.”

Irena and Stefania survived the camp but Maria’s grandmother Halyna died of starvation.

Widow Maria, a retired florist of Eastwood, Notts, says: “They had to work in a German factory, making metal parts for fighter planes.

“She told me once how they had to hide under rail trucks because they were being bombed. She also spoke once about a day when there had been a pogrom against the Jewish population and they were rounded up to go to work and had to step over the bodies.”

Maria’s mother Irena, who survived a Nazi labour camp (

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Collect) Maria took the painting to be restored on The Repair Shop (

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BBC)

After the war, Stefania stayed in Germany and kept the painting.

Irena moved to England, where she met Maria’s father, from Poland.

Maria says her aunt bequeathed her the painting in 1990.

She says: “It is tangible proof that my family existed.”

On The Repair Shop, expert Lucia Scalisi removes dirt and discolouration from the painting. Maria bursts into tears when she sees the result.

She says: “I couldn’t understand why they had taken this painting and not something more practical, but now I get it. It was the precious link between them and their father… the family and life as it used to be.

“The painting is a beacon of peace, faith and beauty out of the darkness and horror of war.”

* The Repair Shop starts Wednesday, BBC One, 8pm.

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