Memories of Survival

Authors: Esther Nisenthal Krinitz and Bernice Steinhardt

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.

Year Released: 2005
Grades 6-9

Memories of Survival