Loss, Remembrance, Testimony

Loss, Remembrance, Testimony

Esther Krinitz and her sister escaped the roundup of the Jewish community in her Polish village, surviving the Holocaust by pretending to be Polish Catholic farm girls in full sight of Nazi soldiers. Decades later, after a career as a dress shop owner in Brooklyn and later in Frederick, Maryland, she used her sewing and design skills to tell her children about her childhood in a series of thirty-six fabric appliqué story panels* embellished with embroidery. 

Esther’s testimony of living through the worst genocide in modern history now serves to educate and remind larger audiences of the Holocaust through a visually powerful personal story. The entire cycle of 36 scenes depicting Esther’s Jewish community before and during the Nazi occupation, and her survival with her sister of the remainder of the war, can be seen at artandremembrance.org.