Elisabeth's Book

Elisabeth's book, 2007
(sixteen digital prints: 30" x 24")

In December 1944 Eszter Schwartz gave her friend Elisabeth Raab a handmade gift. It was a tiny book of black felt pages (about 2 inches square) onto which she had sewn metal cutouts, one on each page.

At the time, the two women were slaves in an Auschwitz munitions factory. It was Eszter's 'job' to cut a small piece of metal from finished grenades. Out of these scraps she fashioned metal cutouts - a heart, a book, a flower - for her gift.