Í tengslum við okkar “Samstarfsaðilar í Umhyggju” áætlun styrkt af UJA-Federation of New York, Y mun innihalda viðtöl frá sex staðbundnum eftirlifendum til að skilja betur sögu hvers einstaklings. Þessi viðtöl verða sýnd í Hebreska tjaldsalnum “Upplifa stríðstíma og víðar: Andlitsmyndir af lifendum helförarinnar”. Galleríið verður opnað föstudaginn 8. nóvember.
Hannah Eisner worked at the Y for 18 ár, as an office manager for Project Hope and then as a program director in the senior center. She retired in 1987, but currently is the chair of the chesed committee, attends the Partner in Caring weekly discussion group, and on occasion teaches an origami class here at the Y once a week.
Hanna Eisner(sculpture by Peter Bulow: www.peterbulow.com)
Hannah Eisner was born in Offenbach, Germany on November 12, 1924. She grew up in Offenbach with both of her parents. Her father worked as the vice president of a Jewish owned private bank and her mother was a stay at home mom. After 1934, Jewish children were not allowed to go to public schools, so they were taught by the Jewish teachers who were also not welcome in public schools. This is how the Jewish school in Offenbach came about. Hannah describes, “I did not feel so deprived. We had our own community.” She remembers that Jews were not allowed to go anywhere in town. There were signs outside movie theaters and businesses that said “Jews not wanted.” She explained the treatment of the Jews: “they were treated like nothings. Like vermin.”
Before Kristallnacht, the super intendant of the building that Hannah’s dad worked in asked him for a favor, which Hannah’s father was able to help with. , Hannah and her parents believe that the reason that her father was not taken to a concentration camp and that her apartment was not demolished was because the super intendant paid this favor back. He protected Hannah’s family. Hannah recalls, “I felt almost embarrassed when everyone else’s father was taken, but he was safe. Still, whenever the doorbell rang, one was afraid one would be taken away. One lived in utter fear.” Hannah remembers mostly how much fear she and her family lived in. She states that there was no justice for Jews.
There was a small Jewish population in Offenbach, and during Kristallnacht, almost all of the apartments were ransacked and the synagogue was set on fire. After Kristallnacht, Hannah remembers the devastation that took place and how it affected her and her community. She remembers getting ready to go to school the next day and being told by one of her classmates to go home because there is no school left. Later on, she and one of her friends walked to the school, “we looked into the broken windows, we saw it all black and burned.” Jewish businesses were greatly affected. Their stores were empty, and no gentile dared to go in. She also describes that her father was pushed out of his position at the bank as the bank was taken over by someone else who was not Jewish. “After Kristallnacht, we knew we had to get out if we could.”
After the events of Kristallnacht, Hannah and her family waited their number to be called in order to come to America. She feared that their number would not be called because the American consulate closed over the summer; þó, their number was called before the consulate closed. While waiting for their number to get called, Hannah and her family prepared for their journey by taking the little money that they had left and buying clothes so that when they reached America, they would have clothes and shoes. Hannah remembers that each day she waited to leave for America, she watched as the Jewish community shrunk.
One of Hannah’s most vivid memories involves her friend Lisel Strauss. When one would receive an affidavit to leave the country, often times the affidavit was not big enough to cover the whole family. The Strauss family did not have an affidavit that would cover all four of them. So the family split up. The father and younger sister, Ellen, went to American first. Lisel and her mother stayed behind with the hope that the father would soon be able to get an affidavit for the two of them. But Lisel and her mother never got out. Ellen married a man who was in the leather business, specifically handbags. The handbags that they made were called the Lisette, which was named after Lisel. (Hannah still has her original handbag, pictured above).
Many of Hannah’s relatives perished in Nazi death camps. She had a cousin who was imprisoned in one of the camps. Her cousin found a boyfriend at the camp. The boyfriend had an opportunity to leave the camp, but he decided to stay with Hannah’s cousin. They both ended up being murdered in the camp together.
The Eisner’s came to America in April 1939. Hannah had relatives in New York who rented a room for her family for a short period of time. She remembers, “to my surprise, the freedom here, the abundance…after relatives had picked us up, they rented a room for us until our few belongings did come…they wanted me to buy things in the grocery store. So with my best English I went down and I said ‘can I have an egg or two?’ They said ‘what? Why don’t you take a dozen?’ These were the surprises of an immigrant.” Hannah’s family would rent five bedroom apartments, which was bigger than what they needed in order to rent out rooms to other refugees who could not afford their own apartments. Hannah remembers, “I never had a room of my own. For a long, long time because we rented out two rooms. But I’m glad to be alive.” When they first arrived, Hannah’s father took a job as a door-to-door salesman. This was a tremendous step down from his position at the bank, but it was the only work he was able to get. Eventually, he was fortunate enough to get a job as a shipping clerk. Hannah’s mother worked very little from home; she stitched slippers together.
Hannah was 14 years old when she came to America. She attended junior high school and then George Washington High School. She was a bright student, but did not want to go to college because she would have to go to classes a night. After graduation, Hannah worked as a billing clerk in a slipper manufacturer.
Living through the devastation of Kristallnacht and the Holocaust affected Hannah in many ways throughout her life, but especially when it came to raising her children. She explains, “I was stricter with them because I felt that the others were killed and we survived so [my children] shouldn’t be so silly. So I was stricter on my boys, which I regret now.”
“Hitler made me proud to be a Jew. Hitler made me Jewish.” Hannah was married in 1950 to an Austrian man that she met in America. She has two sons and three grandchildren. Her middle grandson was just accepted into the Israeli Army. She is tremendously proud ofhim.
Þetta viðtal var tekið af Halley Goldberg hjá Y's Partners in Caring frumkvæðinu og tilheyrir YM&YWHA í Washington Heights og Inwood. Notkun þessa efnis án skriflegs samþykkis bæði Y og viðmælanda er stranglega bönnuð. Sjáðu meira um Partners in Caring áætlunina hér: http://ywashhts.org/partners-caring-0
Hebreska tjaldbúðin Armin og Estelle Gold Wing galleríiðí stoltu samstarfi viðYM&YWHA í Washington Heights og Inwoodbýður þér til okkarnóvember/desember, 2013 Sýning“Upplifa stríðstíma og víðar: Andlitsmyndir af lifendum helförarinnar” með ljósmyndum og skúlptúrum eftir: YAEL BEN-ZION, PETER BULOW og ROJ RODRIGUEZ. Í tengslum við sérstaka minningarþjónustuaf75ára afmæli Kristallnóttar - Nótt glerbrotsinsÞjónusta og opnunarmóttaka listamanna, Föstudag, 8. nóvember, 2013 7:30 kl.
Yfirlýsing frá Y : ” Í áratugi hefur Washington Heights/Inwood Y verið, og heldur áfram að vera, griðastaður fyrir þá sem leita skjóls, virðingu og skilning. Margir sem ganga inn fyrir dyr okkar og taka þátt í áætlunum okkar hafa lifað í gegnum raunir og þrengingar sem við getum ekki einu sinni ímyndað okkur. Fyrir suma, hverjir verða hluti af þessari sýningu, Einn slíkur hryllingur hefur verið þekktur í heiminum einfaldlega sem „helförin“ – kerfisbundið morð á sex milljónum gyðinga í Evrópu.
Við hjá Y minnumst fortíðarinnar, heiðra þá sem lifðu og dóu á þeim tíma, og standa vörð um sannleikann fyrir komandi kynslóðir. Í þágu okkar sjálfra og barna okkar, við verðum að miðla sögum þeirra sem hafa upplifað illsku stríðsins. Það er hægt að draga lærdóma fyrir framtíðina. Viðtölin eru skjalfest af Halley Goldberg, umsjónarmaður „Partners in Caring“ áætlunarinnar. Þessi mikilvæga áætlun var gerð möguleg með rausnarlegum styrk frá UJA-sambandi New York, hannað til að auka tengsl við samkunduhús í Washington Heights og Inwood. “
Sameiginleg listasýning okkar sýnir andlitsmyndir og viðtöl við eftirlifendur helförarinnar, Hanna Eisner, Charlie og Lilli Friedman, Perla Rosenzveig, Fredy Seidel og Ruth Wertheimer, sem allir eru meðlimir Hebresku tjaldbúðarinnar, gyðingur söfnuður sem margir þýskir gyðingar flýja nasista og heppnir að koma til Ameríku, gekk til liðs við seint á þriðja áratugnum. Að auki munum við einnig heiðra Gizelle Schwartz Bulow, sem lifði helförina af- móðir listamannsins Peter Bulow og Yan Neznanskiy, sem lifði af seinni heimstyrjöldina, - faðir yfirmanns Y's., með einhverfu sem eru ekki að fá þjónustu sem styrkt er af Þroskaháskólastofu.
Sérstök hvíldardagsþjónusta, með hátölurum, til minningar um 75 ára afmæli Kristallsnóttar (Nótt glerbrotsins) á undan opnun Gold Gallery/Y sýningarinnar:Guðsþjónusta hefst stundvíslega 7:30 kl. Öllum er boðið að mæta.
Fyrir opnunartíma gallerísins eða fyrir frekari upplýsingar vinsamlega hringið í samkunduna í kl212-568-8304 eða sjáhttp://www.hebrewtabernacle.orgYfirlýsing listamanns: Yael Ben-Zionwww.yaelbenzion.comYael Ben-Zion fæddist í Minneapolis, MN og uppalinn í Ísrael. Hún er útskrifaður af Alþjóðlegu miðstöðinni í ljósmyndun í almennu námi. Ben-Zion er handhafi ýmissa styrkja og verðlauna, síðast frá Puffin Foundation og frá NoMAA, og verk hennar hafa verið sýnd í Bandaríkjunum og í Evrópu. Hún hefur gefið út tvær einrit af verkum sínum. Hún býr í Washington Heights ásamt eiginmanni sínum, og tvíburastrákana þeirra.
Yfirlýsing listamanns: Pétur Bulow: www.peterbulow.com
Móðir mín sem barn, hafði verið í felum í helförinni. Í gegnum árin, reynslu hennar, eða það sem ég ímyndaði mér að hefði verið reynsla hennar, hefur haft mikil áhrif á mig. Þessi áhrif endurspeglast bæði í persónulegu lífi mínu og í listalífi mínu. Ég fæddist á Indlandi, bjó sem ungt barn í Berlín og flutti til Bandaríkjanna með foreldrum mínum á aldursbili 8. Ég er með meistaragráðu í myndlist í skúlptúr. Ég er líka styrkþegi sem gerir mér kleift að búa til takmarkaðan fjölda bronsbrjóstmynda af eftirlifendum helförarinnar. Endilega látið mig vita ef þið hafið áhuga á að vera með í þessu verkefni.
Yfirlýsing listamanns :Roj Rodriguez: www.rojrodriguez.com
Verk mitt endurspeglar ferðalag mitt frá Houston, TX - þar sem ég fæddist og ólst upp - til New York - þar sem, verða fyrir þjóðerni sínu, menningar- og félagshagfræðilegan fjölbreytileika og einstaka sýn hans á innflytjendur– Ég fann endurnýjaða virðingu fyrir menningu allra. Ég hef lært hjá rótgrónum ljósmyndurum, ferðaðist mikið um heiminn og var í samstarfi við marga fremstu fagmenn á þessu sviði. Síðan í janúar, 2006, Ferill minn sem sjálfstæður ljósmyndari er orðinn ferli þar sem ég tek að mér persónuleg ljósmyndaverkefni sem koma fram af mínum eigin skilningi á því hvernig við deilum heiminum og beitum sköpunargáfu okkar í heild.
