Em conjunto com o nosso “Parceiros no cuidado” programa financiado pela UJA-Federation of New York, the Y contará com entrevistas de seis sobreviventes locais para entender melhor a história de cada indivíduo. Essas entrevistas serão exibidas na galeria do Tabernáculo Hebraico “Experimentando um tempo de guerra e além: Retratos de sobreviventes do Holocausto”. A galeria será inaugurada na sexta-feira, 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.
No 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 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 Clínica de basquete para meninas.
Esta entrevista foi conduzida por Halley Goldberg da iniciativa Y's Partners in Caring e pertence ao YM&YWHA de Washington Heights e Inwood. O uso deste material sem o consentimento por escrito do Y e do entrevistado é estritamente proibido. Saiba mais sobre o programa Partners in Caring aqui: http://ywashhts.org/partners-caring-0
Tabernáculo Hebraico Galeria Armin e Estelle Gold Wingem orgulhosa parceria como YM&YWHA de Washington Heights e Inwoodconvida você para o nossoNovembro dezembro, 2013 Exibir“Experimentando um tempo de guerra e além: Retratos de sobreviventes do Holocausto” com fotografias e esculturas de: YAEL BEN-ZION, PETER BULOW e ROJ RODRIGUEZ. Em conjunto com um serviço especial na memóriado75º aniversário da Kristallnacht - a noite dos vidros quebradosServiços e recepção de abertura do artista, sexta-feira, 8 de novembro, 2013 7:30 PM.
Uma declaração do Y : ” Durante décadas, o Washington Heights/Inwood Y foi, e continua a ser, um refúgio para aqueles que procuram refúgio, respeito e compreensão. Muitos que entram em nossas portas e participam de nossos programas passaram por provações e tribulações que nem podemos imaginar.. para alguns, quem fará parte desta exposição, um desses horrores passou a ser conhecido no mundo simplesmente como “O Holocausto” – o assassinato sistemático de seis milhões de judeus da Europa.
Nós do Y lembramos do passado, honrar aqueles que viveram e morreram durante esse tempo, e salvaguardar a verdade para as gerações futuras. Para o bem de nós mesmos e de nossos filhos, devemos transmitir as histórias daqueles que experimentaram os males da guerra. Há lições a serem aprendidas para o futuro. As entrevistas são documentadas por Halley Goldberg, um supervisor do programa “Partners in Caring”. Este programa vital foi possível graças a uma generosa doação da UJA-Federation of New York, projetado para melhorar as relações com sinagogas em Washington Heights e Inwood. “
Nossa exposição de arte conjunta apresenta retratos e entrevistas de sobreviventes do Holocausto, Hannah Eisner, Charlie e Lili Friedman, Pérola Rosenzveig, Fredy Seidel e Ruth Wertheimer, todos os quais são membros do Tabernáculo Hebraico, uma congregação judaica que muitos judeus alemães fugiram dos nazistas e tiveram a sorte de vir para a América, ingressou no final da década de 1930. Além disso, também homenagearemos a sobrevivente do Holocausto Gizelle Schwartz Bulow- mãe do nosso artista Peter Bulow e do sobrevivente da Segunda Guerra Mundial Yan Neznanskiy – pai do Y’s Chief Program Officer, Victoria Neznansky.
Um culto especial de sábado, com alto-falantes, em memória do 75º aniversário da Kristallnacht (a noite dos vidros quebrados) precede a abertura da exposição Gold Gallery/Y:Os serviços começam pontualmente às 7:30 PM. Todos estão convidados a participar.
Para saber o horário de funcionamento da galeria ou mais informações, ligue para a sinagoga em212-568-8304 ou verhttp://www.hebrewtabernacle.orgDeclaração do artista: Yael Ben-Zionwww.yaelbenzion.comYael Ben-Zion nasceu em Minneapolis, MN e criado em Israel. Ela é graduada pelo Programa de Estudos Gerais do Centro Internacional de Fotografia. A Ben-Zion recebeu vários subsídios e prêmios, mais recentemente da Puffin Foundation e da NoMAA, e seu trabalho foi exibido nos Estados Unidos e na Europa. Ela publicou duas monografias de seu trabalho. Ela mora em Washington Heights com o marido, e seus filhos gêmeos.
Declaração do artista: Peter Bulow: www.peterbulow.com
minha mãe quando criança, estava escondido durante o Holocausto. Ao longo dos anos, a experiência dela, ou o que eu imaginei ter sido sua experiência, teve uma grande influência sobre mim. Essa influência se reflete tanto na minha vida pessoal quanto artística. Eu nasci na Índia, vivi quando criança em Berlim e emigrei para os EUA com meus pais na idade 8. Tenho um mestrado em Belas Artes em escultura. Também recebi uma bolsa que me permitirá fazer um número limitado de bustos de bronze de sobreviventes do Holocausto. Por favor, deixe-me saber se você está interessado em fazer parte deste projeto.
Declaração do artista :Roj Rodriguez: www.rojrodriguez.com
Meu corpo de trabalho reflete minha jornada de Houston, TX – onde nasci e cresci – para Nova York – onde, exposto à sua etnia, diversidade cultural e socioeconômica e sua visão única sobre os imigrantes– Encontrei um respeito renovado pela cultura de todos. Eu aprendi com fotógrafos bem estabelecidos, viajou extensivamente pelo mundo e colaborou com muitos dos melhores profissionais da área. Desde janeiro, 2006, minha carreira como fotógrafo independente se tornou um processo de assumir projetos fotográficos pessoais que emergem de minha própria compreensão da maneira como compartilhamos o mundo e exercitamos nossa criatividade como um todo.
