arts&life

PHOTO BY SANFORD BLUM

With some trepidation, she picked up a large
piece of fabric and drew outlines of her house.
Then she started filling in with stitches.

The Art of Esther Nisenthal Krinitz,” which also will include
lectures, events and a film.
Vividly colored, extraordinarily detailed and powerfully
moving, the works of art, with their folk-like realism, belie the
horrors depicted with a closer look — meticulously stitched
work beneath the pictures provide a narrative.
“‘Fabric of Survival’ is an amazing look into a life disrupted
by struggle and turmoil that was a catalyst for a story not
written, but brought to life by needle and thread,” says Janice
Charach Gallery Director Kelly Kaatz.
“We are honored to show an exhibition
that contains so much depth and mean-
ing as well as artistic skill. This powerful
display should not be missed.”
Esther Nisenthal was only 15 years
old when she and her 13-year old sis-
ter Mania ran through the tall fields
and away from the Nazis. They hid in a
haystack and changed their identities
to Josephine and Maria Grochowiezka.
Finally, they secured work with a farmer.
After the war, Esther met and married
Max Krinitz in a Displaced Persons
camp and, in 1949. Esther, Max and
their daughter, Bernice, immigrated to
the United States. (Mania married Lipa
Kalenberg and moved to Israel, then
later to the United States.)
The Krinitzes settled in Brooklyn,
Esther Nisenthal Krinitz in 1998
where Max managed a supermarket and
Esther had a clothing store. They raised
The opening reception for “The Fabric of Bernice and then a second daughter,
Survival: The Art of Esther Nisenthal Helene.
Bernice remembers her mother as “a
Krinitz” is 1-3 p.m. Sunday, July 16. Do-
wonderful
person and a very, very loving
cents from the Holocaust Memorial Center
mother
and
grandmother.”
will be available for questions.
Esther
was
constantly busy cooking,
The exhibit continues through Sept. 19
sewing
and
cleaning.
And while she
and is free and open to the public. For a
worked
she
talked:
about
surviving
complete list of activities held in conjunc-
the
war,
her
mother’s
delicious
potato
tion with the event, visit jccdet.org/gallery.
kugel,
milking
the
cows
and
caring
for
For more about Esther Krinitz’s story, visit
the
chickens,
her
brother
and
sisters
artandremembrance.org.
— and about her dreams. While hid-
ing from the Nazis she dreamt that her
mother was running with her and said:
“The black sky is falling, and when it reaches the ground,
we will die.”
That day when her family and all the Jews in town were
taken away had indeed been dark — with a heavy sky of
clouds, the air filled with panic and crows everywhere, inex-
plicably en masse overhead.
“For some Holocaust survivors, it’s too painful to talk
about,” Bernice says. “I was lucky because I knew about my
mother’s loss, and I knew who she was missing.”
Bernice encouraged her mother to write down these
memories — an idea that inspired Esther to actually show
her daughters what her childhood had been like. Though
certain she couldn’t draw, “with some trepidation, she picked
up a large piece of fabric and drew, in very broad outlines, her
house and her neighbor’s house,” Bernice recalls. “Then she
started filling in with stitches.”

details

TOP: Digging Tank Trenches: “October 1939. As soon as the Nazis came, they put most of
the Mniszek boys and girls to work digging tank trenches across the fields. None of these
boys and girls would survive the war.”
BOTTOM: Esther’s favorite childhood memories were of the Jewish holidays. “Shavuot
1938. My brother and sisters followed as I walked on stilts to our grandparents’ house.”

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July 13 • 2017

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