In this striking drawing, Barosin depicts the biblical figure of David walking through a literal “valley of death,” surrounded by the emaciated and skeletal figures of Jewish prisoners in striped uniforms from the Gurs Concentration Camp, where Barosin was held for five weeks during World War II.

Jacob (Judey) Barosin (1906–2001) was a Jewish artist born in Riga, Russia (now Latvia), who fled to Berlin, Germany, shortly before World War I. He was forced to flee again to Paris, France, in 1933, after Hitler rose to power. Due to anti-Jewish laws established by the Nazis, Jacob and his wife, Sonia, spent the next four years running from the Gestapo. After the war, Jacob and Sonia immigrated to the United States, where Jacob made a living as a sketch artist for NBC-TV. He also illustrated the Jewish Family Bible, created a series on Jesus called the Life of Christ for the Evangelical and Reformed Church, and held numerous exhibitions in the United States and Israel. Collections of material related to Jacob Barosin’s life and work can be found at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Yad Vashem, the Leo Baeck Institute, the Evangelical and Reformed Historical Society, and Museum of the Bible.