OCEANSIDE -- Hand-stitched fabric panels painstakingly created by a woman who wanted to tell a personal story of the Holocaust are now on display at the Oceanside Museum of Art.

The panels, created by the late Esther Nisenthal Krinitz, are a colorful and powerful portrait of how Krinitz and her sister survived one of the darkest periods in world history, museum officials said. The work is highlighted in a traveling exhibit called "Fabric of Survival: the Art of Esther Nisenthal Krinitz," that will be on display at the Oceanside museum through Oct. 25.

The story is told in "a way that can reach everyone," even children, said Teri Sowell, director of exhibitions and collections for the museum.

"It shows how the courage of a few can give hope to so many," Sowell said. "I hope that children who see it will be encouraged that, even if they encounter hard times, they can find strength within them to overcome things like racism, poverty and hate."

An overflow crowd recently packed the museum's auditorium as Krinitz's two adult daughters, Bernice Steinhardt and Helene McQuade, talked about their mother and the legacy she left.

Krinitz was a teenager in 1939 when German troops occupied her village in rural Poland. Her Jewish parents knew the family's situation was precarious. But they were poor, and there was nowhere to go.

Two years later, all the Jews in the village were ordered to leave. Esther begged her parents to let her to stay behind and fend for herself and, out of desperation, her parents agreed.

As the family was led off to a train, 15-year-old Esther and her younger sister watched them go. The two siblings survived the war years by posing as Polish Catholic girls in a nearby village, but never saw their parents again.

Thirty-five years later, Krinitz was married and living in the United States. She began to yearn to tell her grown daughters of the life and family members she left behind.

It was love that compelled Krinitz to take up a needle and thread, love for the family she lost and love for the children she now had, her daughters said. She started by embroidering a panel of her childhood home. Then she made another -- one for each daughter.

When the first grandchild arrived, Krinitz got into full gear. The panels continued over a period of 10 years, not in chronological order, but according to the memories that surfaced.

Krinitz began to stitch captions into the panels, creating a narrative that documented her experiences during the war. By the time Krinitz died in 1991, she had created 36 richly textured works of fabric art.

Her daughters now have a foundation and a Web site to share their mother's legacy and those of others who wish to tell their personal stories of war and injustice through art.

One of Krinitz's stories, depicted through her art, was movingly described by her daughters at the Oceanside event:

It was June, 1941, before the family was separated. The village had been occupied for two years. Esther's family wasn't allowed to own animals, and they needed a food supply. Esther went to work for her neighbors, taking care of their cows. One day she brought them to graze in lush pasture on the outskirts of town. It was an idyllic scene.

But nearby, there were disturbing sounds. Esther crept into the woods to investigate. Through the trees she could see a death camp for Jewish boys. To her horror, Esther watched one boy, too weak to work, get shot by a Nazi guard.Â

The event was a foretelling of things to come. Three months later, her family was marched out of town.

Steinhardt said she thinks of the fabric panel -- half rich green pasture with cows, half barren fields and starving prisoners -- as a version of heaven and hell.

She said she took the picture to a school in New York City and asked the children what they thought. One young boy spoke up: "It shows there's a thin line between good and evil."

Breakout box:

The Fabric of Survival: The Art of Esther Nisenthal Krinitz

Running now through October 25, 2009 at the Oceanside Museum of Art

704 Pier View Way, Oceanside

760-435-3720

For the details about events for children and adults that will accompany the exhibit:

http://www.oma-online.org/

Art and Remembrance Foundation: http://www.artandremembrance.org/index.cfm?CFID=239668&CFTOKEN=33854327&fuseacti on=main.showHome