Born in 1924 in Essen, Germany, Bezem immigrated to Israel at the age of fourteen before the outbreak of World War II. A member of the vibrant generation that built the state of Israel, his early adolescence was spent under Nazi oppression, in refugee camps and in constant fear for the safety of his parents, who died in Auschwitz. This personal history largely shaped his artistic style and work Bezem views art as an expression of the soul of a people, its heritage, and its truth. On 1943, Bezem began his studies at the Bezalel Art School in Jerusalem and not long after that, he was appointed as a teacher there. On 1951 the artist & his wife, traveled to Paris- where he studied at the Centre d’Art Sacre, a Catholic art school specializing in modern sacred art. In the 1955, social and political topics occupied a central position in his work: peace, immigrant transition camps, and proletarian scenes. Inspired by the Mexican painter Diego Rivera, he rendered social ideals in monumental wall paintings in public institutions and buildings. Bezem passed from this socially committed subject matter to themes of national resurrection and liberation. Biblical motifs and traditional Jewish symbols represented the revival of the Jewish People in its ancient homeland. In his wall relief at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, Bezem allegorized this homecoming in the wake of the Holocaust: the lion symbolizes heroism; the candles, the new life; and the cactus, the native-born young generation.
