Ei apitiraa i to tatou “Te mau hoa e haapao ra ia ratou” faanahoraa tei horo'ahia e te UJA-Federation of New York, e faaite mai te Y i te mau uiuiraa mana'o a na taata e ono o te fenua iho no te taa maitai a'e i te aamu o te taata tata'itahi. E faaitehia teie mau uiuiraa mana'o i roto i te piha o te Fare Menemene i Hebera “Te faarururaa i te hoê tau tama'i e te tahi atu â: Te mau hoho'a o te feia i ora mai i te Taparahiraa a te mau Nazis”. E matara te piha i te mahana pae 8 no Novema.
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.
I roto i te 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. Ei hi'oraa, 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 matahiti. 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 mau matahiti.
Ua faaterehia teie uiuiraa e te taata ra o Goldberg no te Y's Partners i roto i te faanahoraa Caring e tei roto oia i te YM&YWHA no Washington Heights e Inwood. Ua opani - etaeta - hia te faaohiparaa i teie tumu parau ma te ore e papaihia e te Y e te taata uiui. A imi i te tahi atu â haamaramaramaraa no nia i te mau hoa i roto i te porotarama aupururaa i ǒ nei: http://ywashhts.org/partners-caring-0
Te Sekene Hebera Armin e o Estelle Gold Wing Galleryi roto i te auhoaraa te'ote'o e tete MTHE&YWHA no Washington Heights e Inwoodte ani manihini nei ia oe ia haere mai i to matou neiNovema/December, 2013 Te mau mana'o tauturu no te“Te faarururaa i te hoê tau tama'i e te tahi atu â: Te mau hoho'a o te feia i ora mai i te Taparahiraa a te mau Nazis” e te mau hoho'a e te mau hoho'a tarai na: YAEL BEN-ZION, PETER BULOW e ROJ RODRIGUEZ. Amuihia'tu i te hoê ohipa taa ê tei ravehia i roto i te feruriraao te75Te oroa matahiti o Kristallnacht -te po o te parariraa o GlassTe mau ohipa e te mau ohipa rima î, Mahana pae, Novema, 2013 7:30 api.m.
Te hoê faahitiraa parau no roto mai i te Y : ” E rave rahi matahiti te maoro, ua riro te Washington Heights/Inwood Y, e te tamau noa nei â i te riro, e haapuraa no te feia e imi ra i te haapuraa, faatura e haro'aro'a. E rave rahi o te tomo mai i roto i to tatou mau uputa e o te amui mai i roto i ta tatou mau faanahoraa, tei faaruru i te mau tamataraa e te mau ati o te ore roa e ti'a ia tatou ia feruri. No te tahi pae, o vai te riro ei tuhaa no teie faaiteiteraa, ua itehia te hoê o taua mau ohipa ri'ari'a ra i roto i te ao nei mai " Te Taparahiraa i te mau ati Iuda " – te haapoheraa tamau e ono mirioni ati Iuda no Europa.
Te haamana'o nei matou i te mau mea i tupu i mutaa ihora, faatura i te feia tei ora e tei pohe i roto i taua area taime ra, e a paruru i te parau mau no te mau u'i a muri a'e. No tatou iho e no ta tatou mau tamarii, e ti'a ia tatou ia faati'a i te mau aamu no te feia tei faaruru i te mau ino o te tama'i. Te vai ra te mau haapiiraa e huti mai no a muri a'e. Na Halley Goldberg i papa'i i te mau uiuiraa, te hoê taata haapa'o i te faanahoraa " Te mau hoa i roto i te aupururaa ". Ua ravehia teie faanahoraa faufaa rahi na roto i te horo'araa i te parau faati'a a te UJA-Federation no New York, hamanihia no te haamaitai i te mau auraa e te mau sunago i Washington Heights e Inwood. “
Te faaite ra ta tatou faaiteiteraa amui i te mau hoho'a e te mau uiuiraa mana'o o te feia i ora mai i te Taparahiraa ati Iuda, Hannah Eisner, Charlie e Te Mau Hau Amui no Marite, Pearl Rosenzveig, Fredy Seidel e Ruth Wertheimer, e melo ana'e ratou paatoa no Te Sekene Hebera, te hoê amuiraa ati Iuda ta te mau ati Iuda Helemani e rave rahi i faarue i te mau Nazi e o tei manuïa i te haere mai i Marite, amuihia'tu i te hopea o te mau matahiti 1930. Taa ê noa'tu i te reira, e faahanahana atoa tatou i te taata tei ora mai i te Taparahiraa a te mau Nazis Gizelle Schwartz Bulow- metua vahine o to matou taata peni hoho'a o Peter Bulow e o WWII tei ora mai o Yan Neznanskiy – metua tane o te raatira o te porotarama rahi a te Y, Victoria Neznas.
Te hoê taviniraa taa ê no te Sabati, e te mau taata a'o, ei haamana'oraa i te 75raa o te matahiti o Kristallnacht (te pô no te parariraa te ofa'i) na mua a'e i te iritiraa o te gold Gallery/Y exhibit:E haamata oioi te mau pureraa i te 7:30 pm. Ua titau-manihini-hia te taatoaraa ia tae mai.
No te mau hora matara noa aore ra no te tahi atu mau haamaramaramaraa, a niuniu atu i te sunago i te212-568-8304 e aore râ, a hi'ohttp://www.hebrewtabernacle.orgParau a te taata peni hoho'a: Yael Ben-Zionwww.yaelbenzion.comUa fanauhia o Yael Ben-Zion i Minneapolis, MN e ua paari i Iseraela. Ua roaa ta'na parau tu'ite i roto i te International Center of Photography's General Studies Program. Ua farii o Ben-Zion i te mau feti'a e te mau feti'a huru rau, No roto mai i te Puffin Foundation e no NoMAA, e ua itehia ta'na ohipa i te Mau Hau Amui no Marite e i Europa. Ua nene'i oia e piti hoho'a no ta'na ohipa. Te ora nei oia i Washington Heights e ta'na tane faaipoipo, e ta raua na maehaa tamaroa.
Parau a te taata peni hoho'a: Ua faaora faahou o Petero ia Petero: www.peterbulow.com
To'u metua vahine i to'u tamariiriiraa, ua tapuni oia i te tau o te Taparahiraa i te mau ati Iuda. I te roaraa o te mau matahiti, to'na iteraa, e aore râ, te mea ta'u i mana'o e, ua tupu te reira i ni'a ia'na, ua faatupu te reira i te hoê faaûruraa rahi i ni'a ia'u. E itehia teie mana i roto i to'u iho oraraa e i roto i to'u oraraa. Ua fanauhia vau i Inidia, ua ora i to'u tamariiriiraa i Berlin e ua reva i te fenua Marite e to'u na metua i te 16raa o to'na matahiti. 8. Te vai nei to'u ite i te mau ohipa rima î i roto i te mau hoho'a peni. Te fana'o atoa nei au i te hoê parau faatia o te faatia ia ' u ia hamani i te tahi mau pereoo uta taata iti o te feia i ora mai i te Taparahiraa a te mau Nazis. A faaite mai na ia'u e, te hinaaro ra anei oe ia riro ei tuhaa no teie opuaraa.
Parau a te taata peni hoho'a :Roj Rodriguez: www.rojrodriguez.com
Te faaite ra to ' u tino ohipa i to ' u tere mai Houston mai, TX – i reira to ' u fanauraahia e to ' u paariraa – i New York – i reira, i mua i to'na nunaa, te huru rau i te pae no te ihotumu e i te pae faanavairaa faufaa e to ' na mana'o otahi no nia i te feia ěê– Ua itea mai ia ' u te hoê faatura apî no te ta'ere o te mau taata atoa. Ua haapii au i te mau taata pata hoho'a aravihi, ua ratere rahi na te ao nei e ua rave amui i te ohipa e te mau taata aravihi e rave rahi i roto i te ohipa. Mai te ava'e tenuare mai â, 2006, ua riro to'u toro'a ei taata pata hoho'a ti'amâ ei rave'a no te raveraa i ta'u iho mau opuaraa, o te matara mai na roto i to'u iho iteraa no ni'a i te huru o ta tatou opereraa i te ao nei e te faaohiparaa i to tatou aravihi i roto i te taatoaraa.
