Esther Nisenthal Krinitz
Encyclopedia
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
.
The Final Solution
In September 1939, as a 12-year-old, Esther watched GermanNazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
soldiers arrive in her village of Mniszek
Mniszek
Mniszek may refer to the following places:*Mniszek, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship *Mniszek, Lublin Voivodeship *Mniszek, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship...
, strategically located along the east bank of the Vistula River. For the next 3 years, German troops used Jewish slave laborers from Mniszek and the nearby city of Rachów
Rachów, Lower Silesian Voivodeship
Rachów is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Malczyce, within Środa Śląska County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. Prior to 1945 it was in Germany....
to build roads and bridges for their Eastern campaign. Once the Nazis moved to implement the "Final Solution
Final Solution
The Final Solution was Nazi Germany's plan and execution of the systematic genocide of European Jews during World War II, resulting in the most deadly phase of the Holocaust...
", however, the Jews of Rachów and Mniszek—those who had not already been murdered—were instructed to leave their homes and report to the train station in Kraśnik
Krasnik
Kraśnik is a town in eastern Poland with 37,989 inhabitants , situated in the Lublin Voivodeship. It is the seat of Kraśnik County.-History:First settled in the 13th century, it received its city charter in 1377....
, about 20 miles away. No one knew where they were going. Many thought they were going to be taken to a ghetto
Ghetto
A ghetto is a section of a city predominantly occupied by a group who live there, especially because of social, economic, or legal issues.The term was originally used in Venice to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live. The term now refers to an overcrowded urban area often associated...
somewhere. Others whispered darkly of death camps.
Esther was by then 15, the second in a family of 5 children and the oldest girl. Her family had managed to struggle through the German occupation, watching their already-meager livelihood dwindle to nearly nothing. Her father, a horse trader, could no longer travel. Soldiers had taken the last of her mother's geese just as her eggs were about to hatch. The night before their departure, as her family assembled what few belongings remained to them, Esther decided she would not go with them. She turned to her mother for help, insisting that one of the Polish farmers among her father's friends would take her in and give her work. Although at first reluctant to let her go, Esther's mother agreed to give her some provisions and destinations.
As the family said their goodbyes to her, Esther realized she could not carry out her plan by herself and insisted that her 13-year-old sister, Mania, go with her. Mania was reluctant, wanting only to stay with the rest of the family, but Esther was emphatic. On October 15, 1942, her father, Hersh; her mother, Rachel; her older brother, Ruven; and her little sisters, Chana and Leah, set off on the road to Kraśnik. It was the last time Esther saw her family.
Escape
Mania was heartbroken and cried to go back to their family. Giving in, Esther turned back with her to the Kraśnik road, filled by now with a stream of refugees. Esther and Mania joined them, walking with their cousin Dina and her baby past fields and through the sandhillsSandhills
Sandhills could be:* SandhillUSA*Sand Hills , Coconino County, Arizona*Sand Hills , Yuba County, California*Sandhills , a region in North and South Carolina*Sand Hills , Bonneville County, Idaho...
of the valley. As they walked on, Esther realized that the next bend in the road would lead to the train station, and she halted in panic, insisting that she could not continue. At this, their cousin turned to Mania and told her she should leave the road and go with her sister.
Esther and Mania went first to the house of Stefan, a good man who embraced them when they arrived. But after sheltering them for a couple of days, Stefan told them that the rest of the village knew where they were and that the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
would soon come looking for them. In tears, he put them out of his house.
Knowing now that it was not safe for them to be seen, Esther and Mania waited in the forest until the rain ended and their clothes dried. While they waited, Esther devised a plan: They would make their way to another village where they were not known. There, they would say that they had come from the northern part of Poland, where their family, like others in the region, had lost its farm to a German family. With their digging tools in sacks across their shoulders, they would ask for work in harvesting potatoes.
Grabówka
They eventually came to the village of GrabówkaGrabówka
Grabówka may refer to the following places in Poland:* Grabówka, district of the city of Częstochowa* Grabówka, district of the city of Tarnów*Grabówka, Lower Silesian Voivodeship...
. Pretending to be a Polish Catholic girl named Josephina, Esther found work with an old farmer whose wife was ill and bedridden. Mania also became a housekeeper, for the village's sheriff and his mother. Until 1944, Esther and Mania cooked, cleaned, cared for animals, helped in the fields, went to church, and lived out the daily lives of two Polish farm girls.
Although the Germans did not have a camp in the village, the Gestapo were stationed nearby and soldiers came and went in the village frequently, commandeering food and other supplies as they needed them. They also took young people for labor camps, now that the Jews had been eliminated. So even though she was assumed to be Polish, Esther was still forced to run up to the attic of the barn to hide when the Germans were seen to be in the village.
In May 1944, after both the farmer and his wife had died and Esther was living on the farm by herself, an old soldier in Grabówka, a veteran of the First World War, told his neighbors that he could hear artillery fire in the distance to the east. The Russians were pushing the Germans back across Poland, and the old soldier predicted that the front would be in their village within a few days. Under his direction, the neighbors dug out a bunker
Bunker
A military bunker is a hardened shelter, often buried partly or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks...
and prepared to go below. The battle front arrived as predicted, and the neighbors spent a night in the bunker as the German and Russian artillery engaged on the ground immediately above them.
Liberation
That day, at sunset, a platoon of Soviet soldiers arrived in Grabówka. Esther and her neighbors ran to greet them. After waiting 2 weeks, Esther left for Mniszek to see who else had returned. When she arrived in Mniszek, her former neighbors were shocked to see her. Only a few other Jews had come back. All the rest were rumored to have been taken to a death camp nearby called MajdanekMajdanek
Majdanek was a German Nazi concentration camp on the outskirts of Lublin, Poland, established during the German Nazi occupation of Poland. The camp operated from October 1, 1941 until July 22, 1944, when it was captured nearly intact by the advancing Soviet Red Army...
. Unable to find the rest of her family, Esther decided to join the Polish Army, then continuing on its way west to Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
under Marshal Zhukov's command.
Before she left, Esther set out to see Majdanek for herself. The Polish Army had taken over the camp, and soldiers who had been there for a while served as guides, taking new recruits around to point out the horrors inflicted by the Nazis. Esther noticed the enormous cabbages growing in the fields around the crematorium, later learning that it had been the dumping site for ashes.
With Marshal Zhukov's army, Esther eventually arrived in Germany.
After the war
After the war ended in 1945, Esther returned to Grabówka to get Mania and in 1946, the two of them returned to Germany, making their way to a Displaced Persons camp in the favored American Zone, in the city of Ziegenheim. She met Max Krinitz there and, in November 1946, married him in a ceremony conducted in the camp. The following year, pregnant with their first child, Esther joined Max in BelgiumBelgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, where he had gone to work in the coal mines. While in Belgium, he contacted a cousin who lived in the United States and she agreed to arrange for sponsorship of his immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
. In June 1949, Esther, Max and their daughter arrived in New York.
Return to Poland
In June 1999, exactly 50 years after she left Europe, Esther returned to Mniszek to see what remained. The landscape of central Poland had not changed: farmers driving horse-drawn wooden wagons, red and yellow fields of poppy and mustard, women carrying baskets overflowing with ripe strawberries. Both in Mniszek and Grabówka, Esther met again with friends and neighbors from her childhood. "Yes, it was just like that!" they said when she showed them photographs of her art.Immediately following her return from Poland, Esther became seriously ill; she died in 2001 at the age of 74.
Pictures
Esther Nisenthal Krinitz began her series of fabric pictures in 1977, with a depiction of her home and family in Mniszek. Although trained as a dressmakerDressmaker
A dressmaker is a person who makes custom clothing for women, such as dresses, blouses, and evening gowns. Also called a mantua-maker or a modiste.-Notable dressmakers:*Cristobal Balenciaga*Charles Frederick Worth...
and highly skilled in needlework
Needlework
Needlework is a broad term for the handicrafts of decorative sewing and textile arts. Anything that uses a needle for construction can be called needlework...
, Esther had no training in art and no conception of herself as an artist. Yet her first picture was so well-received by her family and friends and was so personally satisfying that Esther went on to do another, also of her childhood home.
The next subjects for her art were two dreams she had had while hiding in Grabówka. Each dream—one in which her grandfather had appeared to her and another in which her mother came for her—had left singular vivid images in Esther's memory, and translating them into pictures was an important accomplishment for her. Once the dream sequence was completed, Esther decided to begin a narrative series that grew increasingly complex. With the addition of text, her art became illustrations of Esther's story of survival.
Art and Remembrance
Art and Remembrance has developed an exhibit of Esther Nisenthal Krinitz's work that will travel to museums in the United States, Poland, Israel and other countries that share the legacy of the Holocaust. From October 2003 through August 2005, the entire collection was exhibited at the American Visionary Art MuseumAmerican Visionary Art Museum
The American Visionary Art Museum is an art museum located in the Federal Hill neighborhood at 800 Key Highway in Baltimore, Maryland and that specializes in the preservation and display of visionary art...
in Baltimore, Maryland. It was next exhibited at the Lisa Watson Children's Museum in Miami, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, until February 2006. The collection then traveled to the Birmingham Museum of Art
Birmingham Museum of Art
Founded in 1951, the Birmingham Museum of Art in Birmingham, Alabama today has one of the finest collections in the Southeast US, with more than 24,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, and decorative arts representing a numerous diverse cultures, including Asian, European, American,...
in Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
, followed by Guilford College
Guilford College
Guilford College, founded in 1837 by members of the Religious Society of Friends , is an independent college whose stated mission is to: provide a transformative, practical and excellent liberal arts education that produces critical thinkers in an inclusive, diverse environment, guided by Quaker...
in Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the third-largest city by population in North Carolina and the largest city in Guilford County and the surrounding Piedmont Triad metropolitan region. According to the 2010 U.S...
. The collection is currently on display at the Judah L. Magnes Museum
Judah L. Magnes Museum
The Judah L. Magnes Museum is a museum of Jewish history, art, and culture in Berkeley, California. It was founded in 1962 by Seymour and Rebecca Fromer and named for Jewish activist Rabbi Judah L. Magnes, a native of Oakland...
in Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
, through February 11, 2007.