Miriam and Leah Schaecter, 2022

Oil on cradled panel

40 x 30 in.

Ella Milch-Sheriff

Miriam and Leah Schaecter

Musical composition

Eva was born in 1937 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. In November 1941, she and her family were taken to Auschwitz or Theresienstadt, where she died.

From the memory of David Schaecter

Leah (born 1934) and Miriam born 1936) lived in a small hamlet in Czechoslovakia’s Tokai Mountains near the Hungarian border. Their father Isadore was taken away in April 1940. One year later, the rest of the family – mother Serena, brothers Jacob (15) and David (11), and the girls – were deported to Auschwitz. Serena, Leah, and Miriam were gassed upon arrival.  Jacob died at Buchenwald. Isadore died from typhoid fever two days after his liberation from Mauthausen. 

This painting is based on the recollection of their brother, David Schaecter, who is the family’s sole 3survivor.