Kasabay ng aming “Mga Kasosyo sa Pag-aalaga” programang pinondohan ng UJA-Federation of New York, itatampok ng Y ang mga panayam mula sa anim na lokal na nakaligtas upang mas maunawaan ang kuwento ng bawat indibidwal. Ang mga panayam na ito ay ipapakita sa gallery ng Hebrew Tabernacle “Nakakaranas ng Panahon ng Digmaan at Higit pa: Mga Larawan ng Spirited Holocaust Survivors”. Ang gallery ay magbubukas sa Biyernes ika-8 ng Nobyembre.
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(eskultura ni 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.
Sa 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 taong gulang. 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 taon.
Ang panayam na ito ay isinagawa ni Halley Goldberg ng Y’s Partners in Caring initiative at kabilang sa YM&YWHA ng Washington Heights at Inwood. Ang paggamit ng materyal na ito nang walang nakasulat na pahintulot mula sa Y at ng kinakapanayam ay mahigpit na ipinagbabawal. Alamin ang higit pa tungkol sa programang Partners in Caring dito: http://ywashhts.org/partners-caring-0
Hebrew Tabernacle's Armin at Estelle Gold Wing Gallerysa ipinagmamalaking pakikipagtulungan saang YM&YWHA ng Washington Heights at Inwoodiniimbitahan ka sa amingNobyembre/Disyembre, 2013 eksibit“Nakakaranas ng Panahon ng Digmaan at Higit pa: Mga Larawan ng Spirited Holocaust Survivors” may mga litrato at eskultura ni: YAEL BEN-ZION, PETER BULOW at ROJ RODRIGUEZ. Kasabay ng isang espesyal na Serbisyo sa memoryang75ika Anibersaryo ng Kristallnacht -ang Gabi ng Basag na SalaminMga Serbisyo at Pagbubukas ng Pagtanggap ng Artist, Biyernes, ika-8 ng Nobyembre, 2013 7:30 p.m.
Isang pahayag mula sa Y : ” Sa loob ng maraming dekada ang Washington Heights/Inwood Y ay naging, at patuloy na, isang kanlungan para sa mga naghahanap ng kanlungan, paggalang at pag-unawa. Maraming pumapasok sa ating mga pintuan at nakikibahagi sa ating mga programa ay nabuhay sa mga pagsubok at paghihirap na hindi natin maisip.. Para sa ilang, sino ang magiging bahagi ng eksibit na ito, ang isang kakila-kilabot na ito ay nakilala sa mundo bilang "The Holocaust" – ang sistematikong pagpatay sa anim na milyong Hudyo ng Europa.
Naaalala namin sa Y ang nakaraan, parangalan ang mga nabuhay at namatay noong panahong iyon, at pangalagaan ang katotohanan para sa mga susunod na henerasyon. Para sa kapakanan ng ating sarili at ng ating mga anak, dapat nating ipasa ang mga kwento ng mga nakaranas ng kasamaan ng digmaan. May mga aral na mapupulot para sa kinabukasan. Ang mga panayam ay dokumentado ni Halley Goldberg, isang superbisor ng programang "Mga Kasosyo sa Pagmamalasakit".. Ang mahalagang programang ito ay naging posible sa pamamagitan ng isang mapagbigay na gawad mula sa UJA-Federation ng New York, idinisenyo upang mapahusay ang mga relasyon sa mga sinagoga sa Washington Heights at Inwood. “
Nagtatampok ang aming pinagsamang art exhibit ng mga portrait at panayam ng mga nakaligtas sa Holocaust, Hannah Eisner, Sina Charlie at Lilli Friedman, Pearl Rosenzveig, Fredy Seidel at Ruth Wertheimer, lahat sila ay miyembro ng The Hebrew Tabernacle, isang Jewish congregation na maraming German Jews na tumakas sa mga Nazi at maswerteng nakarating sa America, sumali noong huling bahagi ng 1930's. Bilang karagdagan, pararangalan din natin ang nakaligtas sa Holocaust na si Gizelle Schwartz Bulow- ina ng aming artist na si Peter Bulow at nakaligtas sa WWII na si Yan Neznanskiy – ama ng Chief Program Officer ng Y, Victoria Neznansky.
Isang espesyal na Serbisyo ng Sabbath, may mga speaker, bilang pag-alaala sa ika-75 Anibersaryo ng Kristallnacht (ang Gabi ng Basag na Salamin) nauna sa pagbubukas ng Gold Gallery/Y exhibit:Magsisimula kaagad ang mga serbisyo sa 7:30 pm. Inaanyayahan ang lahat na dumalo.
Para sa mga oras ng pagbubukas ng gallery o para sa karagdagang impormasyon mangyaring tawagan ang sinagoga sa212-568-8304 o tingnanhttp://www.hebrewtabernacle.orgPahayag ng Artist: Yael Ben-Zionwww.yaelbenzion.comSi Yael Ben-Zion ay ipinanganak sa Minneapolis, MN at lumaki sa Israel. Siya ay nagtapos ng International Center of Photography's General Studies Program. Ang Ben-Zion ay ang tatanggap ng iba't ibang mga gawad at parangal, pinakabagong mula sa Puffin Foundation at mula sa NoMAA, at ang kanyang gawa ay ipinakita sa Estados Unidos at sa Europa. Nag-publish siya ng dalawang monographs ng kanyang trabaho. Nakatira siya sa Washington Heights kasama ang kanyang asawa, at ang kambal nilang lalaki.
Pahayag ng Artist: Peter Bulow: www.peterbulow.com
Ang aking ina bilang isang bata, ay nagtatago noong Holocaust. Sa paglipas ng mga taon, kanyang karanasan, o kung ano ang naisip kong naging karanasan niya, ay nagkaroon ng malaking impluwensya sa akin. Ang impluwensyang ito ay makikita sa aking personal at sa aking artistikong buhay. Ipinanganak ako sa India, nanirahan bilang isang bata sa Berlin at lumipat sa US kasama ang aking mga magulang sa edad 8. Mayroon akong Masters in Fine Arts sa sculpture. Tatanggap din ako ng grant na magbibigay-daan sa akin na gumawa ng limitadong bilang ng mga bronze bust ng mga nakaligtas sa Holocaust. Mangyaring ipaalam sa akin kung interesado kang maging bahagi ng proyektong ito.
Pahayag ng Artist :Roj Rodriguez: www.rojrodriguez.com
Ang aking katawan ng trabaho ay sumasalamin sa aking paglalakbay mula sa Houston, TX - kung saan ako ipinanganak at lumaki - sa New York - kung saan, nakalantad sa etniko nito, pagkakaiba-iba ng kultura at socioeconomic at ang natatanging pananaw nito sa mga imigrante– Nakakita ako ng panibagong paggalang sa kultura ng lahat. Nag-aprentice ako sa mga mahusay na photographer, naglakbay nang husto sa mundo at nakipagtulungan sa maraming nangungunang propesyonal sa larangan. Mula noong Enero, 2006, ang aking karera bilang isang independiyenteng photographer ay naging isang proseso ng pagkuha ng mga personal na proyekto sa pagkuha ng litrato na lumabas mula sa sarili kong pag-unawa sa paraan ng pagbabahagi natin sa mundo at paggamit ng ating pagkamalikhain sa kabuuan.
