29.10.24
I came across this embroidery in an op-shop and it immediately reminded me of a portrait I have of my grandmother on my father's side. My father bought the portrait because he said it resembled his own mother, Genia, who was fair and had blue eyes. He had no photos of her as they all were destroyed in the War, and this portrait was the closest image he had ever seen of her.
I never met any of my grandparents as they all perished in the Holocaust. This embroidery was incomplete with threads hanging from the woman's face making her eyes look like they were crying. I felt that she's crying for us all - for her family, for the Jews, and for the whole messed up, suffering world.
3 Generations of portraits on my bedroom wall
My Grandmother, Genia Faitlowicz (or near enough)
My mother, Marysia Kohn
Me, Jane Kohn
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