Using a piece of fabric as her canvas, Beth Gilbert recorded history in the pieces of cloth sewn together for a quilt called “Lest We Forget.”
Gilbert said, “The story of the quilt began with my visit to Yad Vashem in Israel; The World Holocaust Remembrance Center in 1996. Inspiration hit me when I saw the sculpture of a train car. I came home to make the quilt. I cried while I was making this quilt.”
Quilter Beth Gilbert poses with her Lest We Forget quilt. (Photo by Christine Such/My Sun Day News)
The monument consists of a railway carriage and a railway track standing on a broken bridge. It was built in 1990 in memory of the Jews sent to the extermination camps
Gilbert said, “This quilt serves to remind us of the thousands of Jewish children deported from France to concentration camps during the Nazi Era. A few of the names are memorialized on the back including their ages and the number of their convoy. The star in the middle with the missing “triangle” symbolizes these children and their descendants lost to us forever. An estimated fifteen thousand French children under the age of 20 perished.”
Gilbert entered the quilt in the Quilt National. It is a biennial exhibition of contemporary quilt art. The primary exhibition is held at the Dairy Barn Art Center in Athens, Ohio.
Gilbert said, “There were about 1900 entries, and the exhibition includes between 80 and 90 quilts. My quilt was selected. After the conclusion of the Quilt National, selections of the exhibits also tour the country. It is both the largest and one of the most prestigious shows of its kind.”
The quilt was included in the Quilt National book for 1997 and captioned: “This work expresses my feelings about the Holocaust as we pass the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the camps…It is a tribute to those who died and to those who continue to die because of prejudice.”
Gilbert has also worked on other textile projects.
“Two more Holocaust quilts,” she said. “One was inspired by a visit to the Holocaust Museum in D.C.”
