En conxunto co noso “Socios en Caring” programa financiado pola UJA-Federation of New York, o Y contará con entrevistas de seis superviventes locais para comprender mellor a historia de cada individuo. Estas entrevistas serán mostradas na galería Hebrew Tabernacle “Experimentando un tempo de guerra e máis aló: Retratos de sobreviventes do Holocausto”. A galería abrirase o venres 8 de novembro.
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(sculpture by Peter Bulow: 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.
En 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. Por exemplo, 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 anos. 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 anos.
Esta entrevista foi realizada por Halley Goldberg da iniciativa Y's Partners in Caring e pertence ao YM&YWHA de Washington Heights e Inwood. Queda terminantemente prohibido o uso deste material sen o consentimento por escrito tanto do Y como do entrevistado. Máis información sobre o programa Partners in Caring aquí: http://ywashhts.org/partners-caring-0
Tabernáculo hebreo Galería Armin e Estelle Gold Wingen orgullosa colaboración cono YM&YWHA de Washington Heights e Inwoodconvídavos ao nosonovembro/decembro, 2013 Exposición“Experimentando un tempo de guerra e máis aló: Retratos de sobreviventes do Holocausto” con fotografías e esculturas de: YAEL BEN-ZION, PETER BULOW e ROJ RODRIGUEZ. En conxunto cun Servizo especial en memoriada75th Aniversario da Kristallnacht -A noite dos cristais rotosServizos e recepción inaugural do artista, Venres, 8 de novembro, 2013 7:30 p.m.
Unha declaración de Y : ” Durante décadas o Washington Heights/Inwood Y foi, e segue sendo, un paraíso para os que buscan refuxio, respecto e comprensión. Moitos dos que entran nas nosas portas e participan nos nosos programas viviron probas e tribulacións que nin sequera comezamos a imaxinar.. Para algúns, que formarán parte desta exposición, un destes horrores pasou a ser coñecido polo mundo simplemente como "O Holocausto" – o asasinato sistemático de seis millóns de xudeus de Europa.
Nós no Y lembramos o pasado, honrar aos que viviron e morreron durante ese tempo, e salvagardar a verdade para as xeracións futuras. Polo ben de nós mesmos e dos nosos fillos, debemos transmitir as historias dos que viviron os males da guerra. Hai leccións que aprender para o futuro. As entrevistas están documentadas por Halley Goldberg, un supervisor do programa “Partners in Caring”.. Este programa vital foi posible grazas a unha xenerosa subvención da UJA-Federation of New York, deseñado para mellorar as relacións coas sinagogas de Washington Heights e Inwood. “
A nosa exposición de arte conxunta presenta retratos e entrevistas de sobreviventes do Holocausto, Hannah Eisner, Charlie e Lilli Friedman, Pearl Rosenzveig, Fredy Seidel e Ruth Wertheimer, todos eles membros do Tabernáculo Hebreo, unha congregación xudía que moitos xudeus alemáns fuxen dos nazis e teñen a sorte de vir a América, uniuse a finais da década de 1930. Ademais tamén homenaxearemos á sobrevivente do Holocausto Gizelle Schwartz Bulow- nai do noso artista Peter Bulow e do supervivente da Segunda Guerra Mundial Yan Neznanskiy - pai do director do programa Y's, Victoria Neznansky.
Un servizo especial do sábado, con altofalantes, en lembranza do 75 Aniversario da Kristallnacht (a Noite dos Vidros Rotos) precede á inauguración da exposición Gold Gallery/Y:Os servizos comezan pronto ás 7:30 pm. Están todos convidados a asistir.
Para consultar o horario de apertura da galería ou para obter máis información, chame á sinagoga212-568-8304 ou verhttp://www.hebrewtabernacle.orgDeclaración do artista: Yael Ben-Zionwww.yaelbenzion.comYael Ben-Zion naceu en Minneapolis, MN e criado en Israel. É graduada no Programa de Estudos Xerais do Centro Internacional de Fotografía. Ben-Zion é o destinatario de varias subvencións e premios, máis recentemente da Fundación Puffin e da NoMAA, e a súa obra foi exposta nos Estados Unidos e en Europa. Publicou dúas monografías da súa obra. Vive en Washington Heights co seu marido, e os seus xemelgos.
Declaración do artista: Peter Bulow: www.peterbulow.com
Miña nai de nena, estivo agochado durante o Holocausto. Ao longo dos anos, a súa experiencia, ou o que imaxinei que fora a súa experiencia, tivo unha gran influencia en min. Esta influencia reflíctese tanto na miña vida persoal como na miña vida artística. Nacín na India, Viviu de neno en Berlín e emigrei aos Estados Unidos cos meus pais á idade 8. Teño un máster en Belas Artes en escultura. Tamén son o destinatario dunha subvención que me permitirá facer un número limitado de bustos de bronce de sobreviventes do Holocausto. Avísame se estás interesado en formar parte deste proxecto.
Declaración do artista :Rojo Rodríguez: www.rojrodriguez.com
O meu traballo reflicte a miña viaxe desde Houston, TX - onde nacín e criei - a Nova York - onde, exposto á súa etnia, diversidade cultural e socioeconómica e a súa visión única sobre os inmigrantes– Atopei un renovado respecto pola cultura de todos. Eu fun aprendiz de fotógrafos ben establecidos, viaxou moito polo mundo e colaborou con moitos profesionais de primeira liña na materia. Dende xaneiro, 2006, A miña carreira como fotógrafa independente converteuse nun proceso de asumir proxectos de fotografía persoal que xorden da miña propia comprensión da forma en que compartimos o mundo e exercemos a nosa creatividade no seu conxunto.
