March 2020 Portrait of the Month - Fryderyka Mangel

Fryderyka Mangel

This beautiful portrait was created at Austin High School in El Paso, Texas. In the workshop, led by the award-winning teacher Shane Wiggs, the students created portraits using a woodcut technique, leading to beautiful and striking details different from the soft and shaded details of the portraits created at our typical workshops. The gorgeous detail of this portrait of Fryderyka is enhanced by the burst of energy coming from behind her head. It seems to represent optimism and hope.

Fryderyka would have turned 106 this month. She and her husband survived the Holocaust by hiding first in the attic of a Polish family, and then in a bunker on the farm of Wojciech and Katarzyna Kalwinski. The Kalwinski family was later honored by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among Nations.The Righteous Among Nations are people recognized for their efforts in saving Jewish people during the Holocaust. Read more and be inspired by the brave souls that risked their lives for others.