Through the Eye of the Needle: The Art of Esther Nisenthal Krinitz

“These curriculum resources have been designed by Art and Remembrance, an arts and educational non-profit founded in 2003 in Maryland to bring the work and story of Holocaust survivor and fabric artist Esther Nisenthal Krinitz to a wider audience.

The goal was to maximize the educational potential of her art and her unique story, and to promote the use of art and personal memoir as tools for promoting healing and awareness. Its founders Bernice Steinhardt and Helene McQuade, Esther Krinitz’s daughters, grew up with the stories of their mother’s courage and suffering as a child during the war.

Years later, after Esther began to turn her stories into a narrated series of fabric art pictures, they realized the incredible power that their mother’s art, combined with her stitched narratives, had on people. Together, art and story could help people understand not only what war and intolerance are, but also how it feels to those who endure them.  The organization has managed an exhibit of Esther’s works that has toured nationally. It was hosted by The Florida Holocaust Museum in 2013 and made a powerful impact on our students and educators.

The curriculum resources have been edited by our Curator of Education & Director of Research, Urszula Szczepinska, and are now available in our teaching trunks (middle and high school level) shipped to schools across the country free of charge.

The trunks also contain an award-winning book, Memories of Survival, and a multiple-award-winning 30-minute documentary, “Through the Eye of the Needle: The Art of Esther Nisenthal Krinitz,” completed in late 2011.

These unique resources have been donated for our teaching trunks by the leadership of Art and Remembrance.”

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