arts & life

cover story

Never Forget

Suzanne Chessler | Contributing Writer

An artist uses
calligraphy to
remember the
youngest victims of
the Holocaust — in
an exhibit opening
on International
Holocaust
Remembrance Day.

details

“A la Memoire des Enfants
Deportes” will be on view
Jan. 27-May 15 at the Holocaust
Memorial Center in
Farmington Hills. The exhibit
opens with a reception and artist
talk at 7 p.m. Members free/
nonmembers $10. (248) 536-9604;
holocaustcenter.org.

E

leanor Winters and her
husband have divided their
time between homes in
New York and Paris since 2000,
giving her extensive opportunities
to explore the European city as
they each pursue careers in fine
art.
A freelance calligrapher mar-
ried to realistic painter Leendert
van der Pool, Winters became
intrigued by plaques seen where
children gather — at schools, in
parks and on playgrounds. She
took note of the way the plaques
remembered Jewish children
deported — with most murdered
— under Nazi control.
Because of her inclination
to give visual enhancement
to words, she copied the mes-
sages into personal notebooks
holding impactful text, started
making small representations
of the plaques with pen and ink
on paper and gradually moved
into larger works using gouache,
watercolor, acrylic paint and a
variety of inks.
As the number of images
expanded over the years, Winters

At The Museum

In addition to opening the exhibit “A la Memoire des Enfants
Deportes” on Jan. 27, the Holocaust Memorial Center in
Farmington Hills marks International Holocaust Remembrance
Day by waiving fees on that day. Guests may also participate
in a 1 p.m. docent-led tour and hear Holocaust survivors speak
about their experiences. Mania Salinger speaks at 11:30 a.m.
and George Zeff at 2:30 p.m.

decided in 2013 that they could
become a powerful exhibit
and developed “A la Memoire
des Enfants Deportes,” which
opens Jan. 27 at the Holocaust
Memorial Center in Farmington
Hills. An evening reception will
be part of the museum’s recogni-
tion of International Holocaust
Remembrance Day as designated
by the United Nations. (See side-
bar.) The exhibit was first shown
at the Anne Frank Center USA in
New York.
The 75 paintings, on view
through May 15, honor 11,400
children subjected to atrocities
between 1942 and 1944 through
the complicity of the French
Vichy government. Installation

of the plaques was initiated by
former mayor of Paris Bertrand
Delanoe and several Jewish orga-
nizations, notably L’Association
Memoire Juive de Paris.
“Being Jewish is part of what
has drawn me to this subject,”
says Winters, 67, from her New
York home. “My closest friends in
school had parents who survived
the Warsaw Ghetto.
“It’s an art show as well as his-
tory. I’m visually interpreting
the words on the plaques with
the kind of calligraphy I’m using
along with the size, color and
texture of the letters. I do layers
of letters over different kinds of
backgrounds.
“I’m trying to make the pieces

CLOCKWISE
FROM LEFT: The
text of Cinq Eleves
translates to: “In
memory of five
students who
attended these
schools, deport-
Eleanor Winters
ed and assas-
sinated between
1942 and 1944 because they were
born Jews, innocent victims of the Nazi
barbarity with the active complicity of
the Vichy government.” Caraco, Navon,
Tumarinson, Gerling, Sokolski.

700 Enfants Juifs: “More than 700 Jewish
children [were] deported, among whom
75 very small children, the youngest no
more than 15 days old, lived in the 10th
district. They were all torn from their
mothers and deported.”

Paris 15eme: “In memory of the chil-
dren deported between 1942 and 1944
because they were born Jews, innocent
victims. More than 11,000 children were
deported from France between 1942 and
1944 among whom more than 87 lived
in the 15th district. They were exter-
minated in the death camps. We must
never forget them.”

continued on page 38

January 21 • 2016

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