17 - Ordered To Leave Our Homes
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(From Tapestry): “This was my family on the morning of October 15, 1942. We were ordered by the Gestapo to leave our homes by 10 a.m. to join all the other Jews on the road to Krasnik railroad station and then to their deaths.”
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Embroidery and fabric collage, 1991.
32″W x 39″H.
Transcript of Narration
"On October 15, 1942, the Jews of Mniszek and Rachow and the surrounding area were ordered to report to the train station in Krasnik, the nearest city. The night before, Esther wept and told her parents she would not go, begging them to think of someone she and Mania could work for. Finally, her father thought of his friend Stefan in Dombrowa. That was all Esther needed—a name.
"Here, on the morning of their departure, everyone is weeping as they say goodbye. Rachel’s last words to them were, Goodbye my children, maybe you will live. "This was one of the first pictures Esther made. She always said that this was the most difficult picture of all, not technically, but emotionally, depicting as it did the last time she saw her family."