By Her Hand

The project, By Her Hand, pays homage to Ellen’s immigrant mother and her legacy. Having survived six years of Nazi terror and one of the most barbarous of the Nazi extermination centers, she surreptitiously recovered a remnant of charmeuse from her prior life as a lingerie seamstress. With skill, tenacity and unbounded courage she crafted a blouse to begin life anew in Germany among the remnants of the past. That charmeuse blouse hung in her and now my closet and now symbolizes her journey, her oddly normal post war life in the U.S., and legacy of human resilience.