Having grown up in a family of artists, I was drawn to Pnina Granirer's book, Light Within The Shadows. My passion has always been reading. I love reading and I am happy escaping into almost any kind of book. Memoirs and novels about the Jewish experience and the Holocaust have always intrigued me on a very personal level. So I was really very curious when offered the opportunity to read a book that combines both a memoir of an artist who has lived through World War 11 in Europe and also has been apart of the beginning of the State of Israel.
The interpretation Pnina paints of both the world as she was growing up in Romania and the new young state of Israel is wonderfully colorful and descriptive. The reader feels pulled into the painting, almost as if you are walking the streets, you are there with the author.
This book is both an autobiography of the life of an artist as much as it is an historic record of a time in history. Granirer describes in great detail the lives of Jewish families living in the town of Braila, where Jews for the most part would survive the disasters of the war. After the defeat of Hitler, came the New Communist order. Everyone lived in dread of a knock on the door in the middle of the night. "Years later", Pnina writes, "when she asked her parents about their life in Romania before and after the war, their answers were confused. In their minds the fascist and communist era had blended into one painful period. There was one crucial difference however: the treatment of Jews was different under the new dictatorship. Under the fascists the Jews were to be exterminated like vermin: under the communists they suffered as equals along with all other the Romanians."
The war ended and the State of Israel was born. In Romania, the communist party put pressure on everyone to join the Party. Pnina's father narrowly escaped arrest for not becoming a Party member and the family realized it was time to leave the country. At the age of fifteen, Pnina's whole world was about to change. She writes, "...this was it! The dream of living in a country I could call my own was about to come true. The great adventure of my life was about to begin."
Pnina's family boards the Transylvania, a ship designated by Romania to transport emigrants to Israel. They arrived in Haifa port in June of 1950. Interestingly, we learn that though Jewish emigration to Israel at this time was complicated, it was mainly a business transaction for the Romanian government. Granirer explains that she learned later that, "The Jews had become a lucrative export, a good source of hard currency, as well as an exchange card for heavy equipment, for setting up poultry farms and other industries. " Israel was prepared to pay to bring Jews into Israel and Romania realized they had a sought after commodity. Pnina reports that she learned later that she and her mother probably had been worth about $100 each.
On the personal side Pnina describes how she from a young age enjoyed art. She writes that she is not sure where her artistic talent came from as no one in her family was particularly artistic. She presumes that it would follow that if a child is born into a family of musicians than the child might be musical or that children of actors might follow their parents into the theatre. "No one in my family showed any interest in art although my father played the piano. His sister, Maria, would pass some of the time painting small, amateurish pictures that I never saw or heard anyone talk about." writes Pnina. As a reader, I found her questioning the mystery of creativity in each of us interesting. I have often wondered about that myself. Both my parents and my sister are artists by profession. I have always felt somehow the outsider, not having inherited or been blessed with the ability to draw or paint. Though I feel I have found other ways to express creativity, I found it interesting to see my thoughts mirrored in Pnina's words.
As Granirer adapts to life in Israel, learning the language, going to school, and marrying she is also developing her abilities as an artist. She finds different jobs where she can use her artistic talents. Some of these jobs are enjoyable, some are quite tedious. She marries the love of her life and has two children. Her husband, Eddy, will graduate with a doctorate in mathematics. Looking for work will bring the young family to the United States for a few years and then to finally after a few detours and moves they will settle in Vancouver, Canada. Pnina will work hard to balance her art career with her domestic duties, as mother and wife.
Looking back now from the vantage point of 80 years, Pnina has had a long full life filled with wonderful artistic successes. She has shown her work in galleries around the world. She has published a book of poems and artwork called The Trials of Eve. She donated some her work to galleries and museums. Her mixed media painting, Out of the Flames, a work in three panels that takes the viewer through the stages of the Holocaust, is in the permanent collection at Yad Vashem.
Through this memoir the reader is taken into the experience of living through the harsh times during the war and then escaping Romania to Israel. Learning about life in the newly created State of Israel from a different perspective. Also there is much to learn about how an artist has to not only create interesting and beautiful art, but also to market oneself and make the connections that will put their work where the public has access to it. This book covers all of these important topics along with the personal life of Pnina and her family.
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