It is 1943 and Mies Boissevain is imprisoned with seven other women. A member of a prominent banking family, Mies and her family had been sheltering persecuted people and using the cellar of her house as a base for the Resistance group known as CS-6, one of the few groups that performed acts of sabotage. Mies, two of her sons, her niece and nephew were members of the group when they were discovered by the Germans. Many members were immediately executed but Mies and her niece were arrested and sent to the concentration camp at Vught, then Ravensbruck.
Conditions in the tiny cell are beyond grim. It is primitive and ugly, containing a table, some stools and an old mirror that distorts their image. The women are in a poor state and have little connection with one another, when something miraculous happens. A bag of laundry is delivered and hidden amongst it is a simple patchwork scarf. Made from tiny pieces of cloth – of varying colours and patterns – this simple item brings comfort and colour to Mies’s grey world. As she studies the scarf Mies recognises the cloth it is made from, cloth that reminds her of the past and people she has known – blue silk from her first ball gown, patches from her children’s clothing and from her resistance friends. Someone unknown has stitched the fragments together and courageously smuggled it into the cell, providing comfort for Mies in her appalling circumstances.
The scarf is hung around the distorted mirror and Mies takes great delight in sitting with her cellmates, describing the history of each fragment. This draws the women together as a united group, enabling them to gain support and strength from each other. When Mies is finally transferred to Ravensbruck, the scarf has long since been taken from her, but the memory and its message remains with her.
This story is from the January 2018 edition of Patchwork and Quilting.
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This story is from the January 2018 edition of Patchwork and Quilting.
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It is 1943 and Mies Boissevain is imprisoned with seven other women. A member of a prominent banking family, Mies and her family had been sheltering persecuted people and using the cellar of her house as a base for the Resistance group known as CS-6, one of the few groups that performed acts of sabotage. Mies, two of her sons, her niece and nephew were members of the group when they were discovered by the Germans. Many members were immediately executed but Mies and her niece were arrested and sent to the concentration camp at Vught, then Ravensbruck.
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