Customer Reviews

Memories of Survival

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I picked up this book at the school where I teach on the advice of our librarian and I am so very glad I did! The stories woven in the embroidered panels speak volumes about what Esther Nisenthal and her family endured during the horror of the Holocaust. Her use of color is astonishing, and the fact that she actually embroidered the words to her story onto the cloths just makes the whole experience seem so much more real and personal. This book is a moving tribute to all who perished and survived this evil time. This is an amazing book. Highly, highly recommended.

Memories of Survival reveals the truth in the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words and for the first time the history of the Holocaust makes the leap from memory to life in the hand stitched and embroidered tapestries of Holocaust survivor Esther Nisenthal Krinitz.

Having also seen the original artwork that is presented in this beautiful book I can attest that the pictures and stories touch the reader, whether child or adult. The book lovingly enables you to feel that you are remembering the human realities that Esther Nisenthal Krinitz experienced as a child and that she later stitched to life to tell her story to her family, and now shares with the world.

Memories of Survival has a place in every home.

"Memories of Survival", helped me more fully grasp the Holocost through the untutored art of survivor Esther Nisenthal Krinitz. I saw "Memories" when it was on exhibit at the American Museum of Visionary Art in Baltimore, Maryland in the spring of 2005. Mrs. Krinitz's beguiling needlework enabled me to absorb the impact of Nazism on a level hitherto unavailable to me. Her artful pictures and their simple text informed me on what I had been afraid to imagine. I've purchased 4 copies of Memories of Survival", 3 to give as gifts, and one to keep.

In this outstanding book are displayed thirty-six embroidered pictures that the author began at the age of fifty, to illustrate the stories of her childhood in Poland and her survival during the Holocaust. When she died at the age of seventy-four, she wasn't finished, but she left this remarkable book. Her daughter Bernice used her mother's comments to write the text. It is amazing how much Esther remembered, which is evidenced in the intricate details and vibrant colors of the needlework. Each full-page picture is framed in a different color, with Esther's comments under it and the text on the opposite page. The deceptively simple pictures have the look of folk art in contrast to a grimly realistic story. At the end, there is a poignant page titled "To Germany," where Esther has joined the Polish Army in March 1945 and she shows us in it what she remembers so many years later: seeing Nazi officers hanging from every tree as they passed along the road of an earlier battle with the Russians on their way to Berlin. The last frame shows Esther landing at Ellis Island, viewing the Statue of Liberty. She was very excited, because she felt that this meant she would never again be persecuted for being Jewish. Her daughter Bernice calls this a memorial to her mother's family, because of them all, only Esther and a sister survived the war. Esther's daughters Bernice and her sister have founded a nonprofit educational organization called Art and Remembrance, which is dedicated to using the power of story and art to illuminate the effects of war, intolerance, and social injustice. This book is highly recommended for all collections, as Esther's story brings these terrible times alive in a way that adds a different dimension to children's understanding of the Holocaust. For ages 12 - adult.
Reviewed by Andrea Davidson

I saw the panels on which this book is based at the Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore and wished at the time that there was a book. When it came out I made a special effort to get it. Esther Krinitz spent years creating these works of art to illustrate the story of her experience, and the combination of her drive to communicate with her obvious enjoyment of creating surely makes hers a uniquely life-affirming voice recounting the terrible tragedy faced by her family and beyond them, her people, her country, and all humankind. For young people, the details are both strange and familiar, commonplace and unthinkable. They will relate to the young woman's independent streak as well as her affection for her family and grief at losing almost all of them. I look forward to sharing it with the young people in my life.

After viewing the quilts that Esther Nisenthal Krinitz created at the Oceanside Art Gallery in Oceanside Ca, I was so moved, that I wanted to have something to reflect on.

This book satisfies my need. The photographs of the quilts are very clear and the layout is exactly as the story is depicted in the exhibit. The quilts depict the life experiences of Mrs. Krinitz during the holocaust when she was a young girl. The story begins in Poland and it tells of her tenacity for survival. Esther's sister Mania survived the holocaust as well, but all he rest of her family was murdered by the Nazis.

There are 34 quilts displayed. The exhibit has been traveling to Art Musuems throughout the United States Each quilt has an embroided legend so you can follow her travils from 1937 where she lived an innocent idylic farm girl life
to 1939 (when she was 12 years old)and the Nazis arrived in her town. It ends with a tree in Brooklyn and her standing with her granddaughter.

All of the quilts were done after she arrived in the United States and although she had no art education, she captures your heart and mind. She felt that this was her legacy to her children and grandchildren.

I highly recommend the book even i

In 1939, when she was twelve years old, Esther Nisenthal saw Nazi soldiers arrive in her tiny village in central Poland. From that moment Esther's life took a dramatic turn and the events of the next six years would become the stories she would tell her family over her lifetime. At the age of 50 Esther began to retell her memories in a series of hand embroidered panels. With remarkable detail and hand-stitched text, each panel tells a portion of Esther's journey through the Holocaust. The story begins with the family's rural life before the war, describes the depravations and terror of the Nazi occupation, and follows Esther as she and her sister, Mania are separated from the rest of the family and forced into hiding in the forest and passing as Catholic farm girls in order to escape deportation to the death camps. In 1944 the village where they are living is liberated by the Russian army, freeing Esther and Mania. Their joy at liberation is short lived when they discover that the rest of their family perished at Maidanek. The final panel shows Esther, her husband, Max, and their infant daughter arriving in America. As they gaze at The Statue of Liberty Max's cousin, Clara greets them aboard ship saying, "...this will be your America."

Esther exquisitely detailed embroideries make her remarkable story of survival unforgettably moving and provide an unusual way to tell middle grade students the story of the Holocaust.

I saw Mrs. Krinitz's work at an exhibit near me. The fabric paintings are quite large and you don't really get that impression in the book. The paintings range in size from 20" X 24" to three feet by five feet. Many of the paintings are 3-D, and that doesn't come across, either. Nevertheless, the color and most of the texture can be seen in these photos of the paintings.

My only regret is that there is no photo of Mrs. Krinitz in the book. I did see it in the exhibit and even as an old woman, she was beautiful.

I'm always amazed at the courage and dignity we find among those who have suffered greatly. Mrs. Krinitz took her suffering and turned it into creative, majestic beauty that is breath-taking to behold. I thank her daughters for sharing their mother's work.

Anyone interested in needlework will appreciate this book. Anyone interested in survival stories will be amazed at this one.

I first found this book at my local library and wanted a copy of my own. The story is great and the art work is phenominal. The book that I ordered through Amazon.com arrived promptly and in excellent condition. I would recommend this book to other people.

powerful book as well as the added gift of fiber art that the writer used to illustrate her experiences