Polish sisters’ escape from Nazis subject of film

On Saturday (Janaury 26) her incredible experiences will be related through a short documentary film entitled “Through the Eye of a Needle” - Fabric of Survival - at the Tower Museum in Londonderry.

In Poland in 1942 15 year old Esther and her 13 year old sister Mania left their family and ran away when the Jews of her village were ordered by the Nazis to report to a nearby train station.

They subsequently evaded the Gestapo for two years by pretending to be Catholic farm girls. In 1977 at the age of 50 Esther began to create works of fabric to tell her story of survival and over the course of subsequent years she created 36 various pieces of Art.

In 2003 two years after her death her daughters Bernice Steihardt and Helene Mc Quade decided to display her work to a wider audience and created Art and Remembrance, a non profit education organisation.

The film “Through the Eye of a Needle” is produced by Art and Remembrance and features extensive interviews with Esther as well as beautifully filmed images of the art works.

The film showing will commence at 3.00pm and will be approximately 40 minutes in duration. At the conclusion of the film a short question and answer session will be chaired by Textile Art Curator, Roberta Bacic.

Admission is free and refreshments will be served afterwards. Further information on the film and artworks can be viewed at www.artandremembrance.org and by contacting the Tower Museum on Tel: 028 7137 2411 or Email: [email protected]