'The Eye Of The Needle, The Fabric Art Of Esther Nisenthal Krinitz'

BIRMINGHAM, ALA.

:"Through the Eye of the Needle: The Fabric Art of Esther Nisenthal Krinitz," will open Sunday, February 26, in the Arrington Gallery of The Birmingham Museum of Art. For Esther Krinitz, her deep-rooted belief in God and her Jewish faith helped deliver her and her younger sister Mania from the gates of the Maidanek Nazi concentration camp. Krinitz's fabric art tells the survival story of the two young girls as they struggled to stay alive in German-occupied Poland during the Holocaust with the help of gentiles. Told through 36 intricately designed fabric panels, "Through the Eye of the Needle" will be on display through April 30.

"With her needle, Esther Krintiz embroiders panels of sublime beauty that tell a story of great sorrow and loss and eventual salvation," says Miriam Fowler, Birmingham Museum of Art education curator. Krintiz begins her biographical journey as a child of a devout Jewish family in the small village of Mniszek in Poland. Her first memories of the Nazi's brutal arrival are of a soldier "roughing up" her grandfather and cutting his beard as her grandmother watched screaming.

During their occupancy, Esther's family chose defiance as a means of survival. Her father and older brother lived in the woods to save themselves from being forced to a labor camp. Her mother directed the family to go in separate directions while fleeing from a Gestapo raid. Esther herself sought the services of a dentist in a nearby Nazi camp and taught her friend German so the soldiers wouldn't suspect them of being Jewish. These startling vignettes are depicted in the textiles.

The most riveting images detail the departure of Esther and Mania from the rest of the family, all of whom were killed. Incredible emotion echoes in this series of panels at having left loved ones behind. The story continues through forests and villages of Poland as the girls struggle to keep their identities hidden. The sisters returned after the liberation of Poland to find their homes occupied by strangers and their family and Jewish neighbors gone.

Now free, but unsure of where to go, the girls ended up at a displaced persons camp, where they met their future husbands. The ending panels come back full circle to a happy village filled with the love and togetherness of family.

Never claiming to be an artist, Esther used her dressmaking skills to stitch a story she could leave behind for her two daughters. The girls realized what an amazing story these fabrics wove and knew the art, as well as the history, needed to be seen by many.

"Through the Eye of the Needle" is organized by Art & Remembrance and is running in conjunction with "I Never Saw Another Butterfly: Children's Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1944" at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

The Birmingham Museum is at 2000 Eighth Avenue North and Richard Arrington Boulevard. For information, 205-254-2278 or www.artsbma.org.