In Verbindung mit unserem “Partner in der Pflege” Programm gefördert von der UJA-Federation of New York, the Y wird Interviews von sechs lokalen Überlebenden enthalten, um die Geschichte jedes Einzelnen besser zu verstehen. Diese Interviews werden in der Galerie des hebräischen Tabernakels gezeigt “Eine Zeit des Krieges und darüber hinaus erleben: Porträts temperamentvoller Holocaust-Überlebender”. Die Galerie öffnet am Freitag, 8. November.
Fredy Seidel lives in Washington Heights. Through this initiative, he has learned more about the Y and plans to become a member of the Center for Adults Living Well @ the Y.
Fredy Seidel(Skulptur von Peter Bülow: WWW.PETERBULOW.COM)
After Kristallnact, the Seidels realized that it was no longer safe to stay in Germany so they decided to contact a Jewish agency in Breslau to begin preparations to leave. There was a Jewish organization that worked tirelessly to help Jews get out of Germany. The organization’s first priority was helping to get prisoners out of concentration camps, which was a very expensive task because the German government would not let prisoners leave the camps unless they were able to produce a roundtrip ticket out of the country. Fredy’s parents received a telegram at their synagogue on Saturday morning during services from this agency, stating that the agency found money for them to leave Germany and that they should come immediately. The agency had enough money to rescue Fredy’s parents, grandmother, and one of his brothers, Horst. Fredy’s oldest brother Rudi would be sent to Berlin to stay with an interfaith family in the hope that he would receive an affidavit to go to America. However, Rudi would never make it to America; while he was in Berlin, he was picked up from the street and sent to Auschwitz.
Im 1939, the family left Bremerhaven, Germany and arrived in Shanghai a month later. After getting off the boat, the Seidel’s were taken to the ghetto that had been organized by the local Sephardic community. Fredy Seidel was born on May 1, 1941 in Shanghai, China. While in Shanghai, Fredy’s parents attempted to make a living by doing anything that they could to make money. The conditions were poor and made it very difficult to find work. The ghetto of 25,000 people was fed by a community kitchen that was also funded by the local Sephardic community. The ghetto had one synagogue, which had been built by Russian Jews. The synagogue became known as Ohel Moishe and that synagogue is still standing today.
The Jews who lived in Shanghai ghetto were housed in warehouses that were divided into 10 rooms. Each room provided shelter to 28 people. There were no walls; it was just one large room with bunk beds. Fredy’s mom would use a trunk and tablecloth to make a table for their meals. Conditions were not very sanitary. For example, the toilet was about 150 feet away from the room, so the Seidel family would keep pot under their bed in case they had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. In the morning, they would take their pots to the toilet to dispose of the waste. There were two community showers, one for men and one for women; this did not allow for any privacy. Approximately 3000 people died from malnutrition and unsanitary conditions. Fredy recalls that you were not allowed to leave the ghetto without special permission from the police commissioner.
Not all of the refugees in the ghetto were Jewish. Fredy remembers that there were people who came because they had interfaith marriages. When asked about his community, Fredy states, “For me, I felt a very strong sense of Judaism and a very strong belief in G-d.” While living in Shanghai, Fredy recalls learning a lot about Judaism and what it means to have faith. He goes on to explain that a large portion of the refugees came from a town in Germany called Selisia.
The Jewish community in Shanghai was very tightknit and poverty stricken. People tried to make the best of their time there. The Jews created their own newspaper called the Yellow Post. Fredy recalls the Chinese being very helpful and shared what little they had with the Jewish community.
Fredy attended four Jewish schools within five years in Shanghai. He also attended a British school. Fredy recalls having to attend Anglican services while in the British school. There, the students were punished by the teachers with a bamboo stick, which they used to hit the children. This was very different from his experience in the Jewish schools. He described the Jewish schools as very nurturing. Since there were many refugee students left, a small school was created to accommodate them. There were three students to every teacher. This was not very conducive to learning because of the way the teacher’s attention was decided.
While in the ghetto, Fredy’s fathers tried making a living by collecting old razor blades, sharpening them, and trying selling them to the Chinese, but this did not work out. He then tried to become a shoemaker. Additionally, he was the cantor at Ohel Moshe synagogue.
The Red Cross came to Shanghai and distributed questionnaires to the refugees to figure out who was looking for their relatives. A year later, they came back and posted a large bulletin board on a wall with a list of names of the people they had been looking for. This is how Fredy’s father found out that his oldest son had been murdered in Auschwitz. He also found out that his parents and siblings had all been killed. Fredy remembers, “my father collapsed into the arms of my brother. That’s how people found out what happened to members of their family. It wasn’t the most sensitive way to find out.”
Eventually, the Chinese government told the Jews that they could not stay there any longer. In 1952, the Seidel’s returned back to Germany. They were one of the last thirty families to leave Shanghai. Fredy’s parents would get startup money to rebuild their lives once again in Germany.
When the Seidel’s got back to Germany, it had been divided into East and West Germany. Fredy’s parents were from a German town called Breslau, which had become a part of Poland, and was considered to be a part of West Germany so the restitution that was promised upon their return to Germany did not apply to them. This was financially devastating to the Seidel’s. This made the Seidel’s resort to smuggling good between East and West Germany in order to help them survive. The Seidel’s moved into a small apartment and Fredy’s father became a cantor again. On February 2, the Seidel’s received their visa to come to America. On February 22, Fredy’s mother was admitted to the intensive care unit where she would stay until September and would come out in a wheelchair. Fredy’s bar mitzvah was going to be in May. He was supposed to be the first boy with two Jewish parents to be bar mitzvahed in post-war Berlin. Many rabbis came from all over to be there for this occasion. The night before his bar mitzvah, Fredy and his father decided that they did not want to have the bar mitzvah without his mother being present and healthy again. He ended up waiting until after she was discharged from the hospital to have his bar mitzvah.
The Seidel’s were stuck in Germany for 7 years. In 1959, the Seidel’s made their way to America. The family decided to go to San Francisco to visit one of Fredy’s brothers before settling down in New York. What was supposed to be a two week trip turned into a yearlong stay. While in San Francisco, Fredy worked as a busboy and then a stock boy to try and help his family financially. After his family decided to move to New York, Fredy worked in Gimble’s selling stamps. He had dreams of attending Columbia University and after working at Gimble’s for a short while, his dreams were realized. Fredy enrolled at Columbia University at 20 Jahre alt. Although he would be drafted into the army while at Columbia, because of the tropical illnesses he contracted as a child in Shanghai he was not accepted into the army. In his last job, Fredy worked as a paralegal at a law firm for 20 Jahre.
Dieses Interview wurde von Halley Goldberg von der Y’s Partners in Caring Initiative geführt und gehört dem YM&YWHA von Washington Heights und Inwood. Die Verwendung dieses Materials ohne schriftliche Zustimmung sowohl des Y als auch des Befragten ist strengstens untersagt. Erfahren Sie hier mehr über das Partners in Caring-Programm: http://ywashhts.org/partners-caring-0
Hebräischer Tabernakel Armin und Estelle Gold Wing Galeriein stolzer Partnerschaft mitder YM&YWHA von Washington Heights und Inwoodlädt Sie zu unserem einNovember Dezember, 2013 Ausstellungsstück“Eine Zeit des Krieges und darüber hinaus erleben: Porträts temperamentvoller Holocaust-Überlebender” mit Fotografien und Skulpturen von: YAEL BEN-ZION, PETER BULOW und ROJ RODRIGUEZ. In Verbindung mit einem besonderen Service in Erinnerungdes75Jahrestag der Reichspogromnacht – die Nacht des zerbrochenen GlasesGottesdienste und Eröffnungsempfang der Künstler, Freitag, 8. November, 2013 7:30 Uhr.
Eine Aussage von Y : ” Seit Jahrzehnten ist das Washington Heights/Inwood Y, und ist es weiterhin, ein Zufluchtsort für Schutzsuchende, Respekt und Verständnis. Viele, die unsere Türen betreten und an unseren Programmen teilnehmen, haben Prüfungen und Wirrungen durchlebt, die wir uns nicht einmal ansatzweise vorstellen können. Für einige, wer wird Teil dieser Ausstellung sein, Ein solches Grauen ist der Welt einfach als „Der Holocaust“ bekannt geworden. – die systematische Ermordung von sechs Millionen Juden in Europa.
Wir vom Y erinnern uns an die Vergangenheit, ehren Sie diejenigen, die in dieser Zeit lebten und starben, und die Wahrheit für zukünftige Generationen bewahren. Uns und unseren Kindern zuliebe, wir müssen die Geschichten derer weitergeben, die die Übel des Krieges erlebt haben. Es gibt Lehren für die Zukunft. Die Interviews werden von Halley Goldberg dokumentiert, ein Betreuer des „Partners in Caring“-Programms. Dieses lebenswichtige Programm wurde durch ein großzügiges Stipendium der UJA-Federation of New York ermöglicht, entwickelt, um die Beziehungen zu den Synagogen in Washington Heights und Inwood zu verbessern. “
Unsere gemeinsame Kunstausstellung zeigt Porträts und Interviews von Überlebenden des Holocaust, Hannah Eisner, Charlie und Lilli Friedmann, Perle Rosenzveig, Fredy Seidel und Ruth Wertheimer, alle sind Mitglieder des hebräischen Tabernakels, eine jüdische Gemeinde, aus der viele deutsche Juden vor den Nazis fliehen und das Glück haben, nach Amerika zu kommen, schloss sich in den späten 1930er Jahren an. Darüber hinaus werden wir auch die Holocaust-Überlebende Gizelle Schwartz Bülow ehren- Mutter unseres Künstlers Peter Bülow und des Überlebenden des Zweiten Weltkriegs, Yan Neznanskiy – Vater des Y’s Chief Program Officer, Viktoria Neznansky.
Ein besonderer Sabbatgottesdienst, mit Lautsprechern, in Erinnerung an den 75. Jahrestag der Kristallnacht (die Nacht des zerbrochenen Glases) geht der Eröffnung der Ausstellung Gold Gallery/Y voraus:Die Gottesdienste beginnen pünktlich um 7:30 Uhr. Alle sind dazu eingeladen.
Für Öffnungszeiten der Galerie oder für weitere Informationen rufen Sie bitte die Synagoge unter an212-568-8304 oder sehenhttp://www.hebrewtabernacle.orgStatement des Künstlers: Yael Ben-Zionwww.yaelbenzion.comYael Ben-Zion wurde in Minneapolis geboren, MN und in Israel aufgewachsen. Sie ist Absolventin des General Studies Program des International Center of Photography. Ben-Zion ist Empfänger verschiedener Stipendien und Auszeichnungen, zuletzt von der Puffin Foundation und von NoMAA, und ihre Arbeiten wurden in den Vereinigten Staaten und in Europa ausgestellt. Sie hat zwei Monographien ihrer Arbeit veröffentlicht. Sie lebt mit ihrem Mann in Washington Heights, und ihre Zwillinge.
Statement des Künstlers: Peter Bülow: www.peterbulow.com
Meine Mutter als Kind, war während des Holocaust untergetaucht. Über die Jahre, ihre Erfahrung, oder was ich mir als ihre Erfahrung vorstellte, hat mich stark beeinflusst. Dieser Einfluss spiegelt sich sowohl in meinem persönlichen als auch in meinem künstlerischen Leben wider. ich wurde in Indien geboren, lebte als kleines Kind in Berlin und wanderte im Alter mit meinen Eltern in die USA aus 8. Ich habe einen Master in Fine Arts in Bildhauerei. Ich bin auch Empfänger eines Stipendiums, das es mir ermöglicht, eine begrenzte Anzahl von Bronzebüsten von Holocaust-Überlebenden anzufertigen. Bitte lassen Sie mich wissen, wenn Sie daran interessiert sind, Teil dieses Projekts zu sein.
Statement des Künstlers :Roj Rodríguez: www.rojrodriguez.com
Meine Arbeit spiegelt meine Reise von Houston wider, TX – wo ich geboren und aufgewachsen bin – nach New York – wo, seiner Ethnie ausgesetzt, kulturelle und sozioökonomische Vielfalt und seine einzigartige Sicht auf Einwanderer– Ich fand einen neuen Respekt für die Kultur aller. Ich habe bei renommierten Fotografen gelernt, bereiste die Welt ausgiebig und arbeitete mit vielen Top-Profis auf diesem Gebiet zusammen. Seit Januar, 2006, Meine Karriere als unabhängiger Fotograf ist zu einem Prozess geworden, in dem ich persönliche Fotoprojekte annehme, die aus meinem eigenen Verständnis davon hervorgehen, wie wir die Welt teilen und unsere Kreativität als Ganzes ausüben.
