Guilford College is honored to have Fabric of Survival, an exhibit of the visionary art of Holocaust survivor Esther Nisenthal Krinitz on display.
“The Greensboro Public Library’s 2006 One City One Book selection of the Diary of Anne Frank prompted me to look for a Holocaust artist,” said Theresa Hammond, Guilford art gallery director and curator. “I have been very pleased to have a social justice theme this year.”
According to Hammond, the founding director of Guilford’s gallery, securing the collection required more effort than any previous exhibit in her 16 years as curator. Dimmed lighting and special heat and humidity control must be followed to protect the survival of the fabric itself. Extra staffing was scheduled to meet the security measures understandably required by the artist’s family.
Krinitz was a skilled dressmaker who, at the age of 50, began to piece together the stories of her family lost in the Holocaust through embroidered tapestries. Her daughters, Bernice Steinhardt and Helene McQuade, soon realized that their mother’s art – intended only for them and their children – should be seen by the world.
For those who visit the exhibit, which is on display until Oct. 29, a nearly sacred setting of subdued lighting and vibrant textures invites the viewer to be drawn into Krinitz’s childhood memories of her family and village of Mniszek, Poland.
“Most striking is the lack of depression, the cheer of color and style of her work in the way a child might approach it,” said exhibit visitor Andrew Bruenig, a junior physics, environmental studies, and math major. “She conveys her message objectively without losing her personal connection. Particularly meaningful is her healthy ability to portray her subject matter without dwelling on it.”
“What do we want to come out of all this?” asked junior Lily Moselle, an art and education studies major who is an intern with Hammond this fall. “This was somebody’s life – everybody’s life is worth living – she was really somebody.”
Eric Mortensen, assistant professor of religious studies, was impressed by the artist’s portrayal of the day the Jews in her village were rounded up by the Gestapo. “Images of people loaded into carts to be taken away-they remind me that millions also died in the Congo, Cambodia, Northern Uganda, and Chinese Tibet.”
Such responses are what the artist’s daughters hoped for and why her oldest daughter, Steinhardt, founded the all-volunteer Art and Remembrance project. “I wanted to show what it felt like to experience racism and war,” said Steinhardt. “My mother’s work shows one person, not a statistic – this is incredible power. We can use that power to change hearts and minds.”
Steinhardt and McQuade were the guest speakers at the Hege Library opening reception on Sept. 10. They traced their mother’s own change of heart and mind artistically, as Krinitz developed her drawing abilities, for no one else could draw from Krinitz’s memories.
In commenting on the same tapestry noted by Mortensen, Steinhardt emphasized, “My mother had taken extraordinary care in sketching each figure of these people she had lost, to keep their memories alive.”
In 1999, Steinhardt and McQuade accompanied their mother on her only return to Poland. It was here where generations of their family had lived since the 1600s. She described the concentration camp barracks of Maidanek crammed with piles of shoes.
Mortensen has also visited Maidanek. He remembers a huge mound of crematorium remains. “It was a human ash memorial with human size lettering across the top,” he said, which carried the caption “Let this be a warning to our children.”
In contrast, Krinitz embroidered her captions in fine print beneath her larger message of life and family. “The commentary really adds to understanding – it’s hard to look at, but it’s important to look at,” said sophomore Becky Pittman, an Environmental Life Sciences major.
Holocaust survivor Shelly Weiner, a Greensboro resident, also went to Maidanek when she attended the March of Living in 2000. “We visited concentration camps all over Poland and did okay – but everyone broke down at Maidanek.”
Weiner, also a Polish Jew, was a child in hiding for three years like Krinitz and Frank. “The concentration camp is in the valley,” she explained. “The village of Maidanek is set on a hill. Anywhere you are, you can see what’s going on down below – you could see the gas chambers, the crematorium. The director taught his girls piano, and raised roses with human ashes.”
In 1944, 15-year-old Krinitz went to Maidanek to look for her family. It was 50 years later through her tapestry of remembrancethat she created a memorial unlike any other.
“Genocide is learned behavior – people intentionally try not to know,” said Mortensen, citing the active genocide in Darfur. “We do nothing. Inaction in the face of genocide means that no one is listening to the lesson of genocide.”
The “why” is unanswerable according to Weiner. who was only four years old when she went into hiding with her mother. “I never could come up with an answer. It’s beyond understanding, beyond feeling. To make any difference, you can only impact the people around you.”
The Fabric of Survival exhibit, displayed in conjunction with the One City One Book focus on the Anne Frank diary, is a great place to start.
Steve Sumerford, assistant director of Greensboro Public Library invites all college students to participate. “It means a lot to the community if students come out. One City One Book includes the whole community, including colleges. If you can take a look at the calendar of events and pick one thing to come to.