In conjunctione cum nostris “Socii in Caring” progressio a UJA-Foederationis Novi Eboraci fundus, colloquia Y faciet ex sex reliquiis localibus ut melius cognoscant singulas fabulas. Hi conloquia ostendentur in porticu Hebraico Tabernaculi “Experiens tempus belli et ultra: Effigies SPIRITUAE Holocaustae reliquiae”. Porticus aperietur Veneris die 8 mensis Novembris.
Hannah Eisner worked at the Y for 18 annos, 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.
Anna 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; sed, 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.
This interview was conducted by Halley Goldberg of the Y’s Partners in Caring initiative and belongs to the YM&YWHA de Washington arces et Inwood. Usus huius materiae sine consensu scripto dato tam Y quam euentum stricte prohibetur. Plura de Sociis in programmatis curandis hic reperi: http://ywashhts.org/partners-caring-0
Tabernaculum Hebraicum Armin et Estelle Aurum Wing Galleryet in societate superbirein YM *&YWHA de Washington arces et Inwoodinvitat te ad nostrumNovember/December, 2013 Exhibit“Experiens tempus belli et ultra: Effigies SPIRITUAE Holocaustae reliquiae” per imagines et sculpturas by: YAEL BEN-ZION, PETRUS BULOW et ROJ RODRIGUEZ. In conjunctione cum speciali Service in memoriamde75th Anniversary of Kristallnacht id est noctem Vitri fractiOfficia et Artist's Receptio Aperiens, Veneris, Novembris 8th, 2013 7:30 p.m.
Enuntiatum a Y * : ” Pro decenniis Washington Heights / Inwood Y fuit, ac pergit, portum petentibus, respexit et intellectus. Multi qui portas nostras intrant et programmata nostra participant, per tribulationes et tribulationes vixerunt, quas ne cogitari quidem possumus. Aliquot, quis erit pars huius exhibit, quis talis horror innotuerit mundo simpliciter ut « Holocausta ». – caedes systematica sex miliones Iudaeorum Europae.
Nos apud ego memini praeterita, honorificabit eos qui in tempore illo vixerunt et mortui sunt, et veritatem posteris tueatur. Pro nobis et filiis nostris, fabulas praeterire oportet eorum qui belli mala experti sunt. Lectiones sunt ut discantur in posterum. Colloquia confirmantur ab Halley Goldberg, a "Socii in Caring" programma supervisoris. Haec progressio vitalis possibilis facta est per generosam donationem ab UJA-Foederationis Novi Eboraci, ad augendae relationes cum synagogis in Washington Arcibus et Inwood. “
Nostra ars iuncturam exhibeat lineamenta imagines et colloquia reliquiarum Holocaustici, Anna Eisner, Charlie and Lilli Friedman, Margarita Rosenzveig, Fredy Seidel et Ruth Wertheimer, qui omnes membra sunt tabernaculum Hebraicum, Congregatio Judaica, quod multi Germani Judaei nazis fugientes et felix ad Americam venerint, coniuncta nuper 1930's. Insuper etiam honoramus Holocaustum superstes Gizelle Schwartz Bulow- mater artificis nostri Petri Bulow et WWII superstes Yan Neznanskiy - pater principalis Programmatis officialis., Victoria Neznansky.
Peculiaris sabbatum Service, cum loquentium, in memoriam 75th anniversario Kristallnacht (noctem Vitri) praecedit foramen Aurum Gallery / Y exhibent:Officia statim incipiunt ad VII ":30 post meridiem. Omnes invitantur ad comitatum.
Ad gallery horas apertas vel ad ulteriores notitias synagogam vocare placet212-568-8304 aut viderehttp://www.hebrewtabernacle.orgArtis Editio: Yael Ben-Zionwww.yaelbenzion.comYael Ben-Zion in consectetur, MN et erexit in Israel. Graduata est Programma de Studiorum Generalium Internationalium Centre Photography. Ben-Zion est recipiens variarum concessionum et praemiorum, recentissime ex Fundatione Puffin et NoMAA, et opus eius in Civitatibus Foederatis Americae et in Europa exhibitum est. Duo monumenta operis sui edidit. Cum marito in arces Washington habitat, et gemini pueri.
Artis Editio: Petrus Bulow: www.peterbulow.com
Mater mea sicut puer, fuerat in latebris in Holocaustum. Trans annos, eam experientiam, vel quod eam experientiam fuisse putabam, magnam vim habuit in me. Haec auctoritas tam in personali quam in artificiosa vita reflectitur. Ego natus sum in India, vixit puer parvulus Berolini et emigravit in US cum parentibus meis aetate 8. Magistros in Finibus Artibus in sculptura habeo. Ego quoque donam recipio , quae mihi paucas imagines aereas Holocausti superstites facere sinit .. Quaeso me certiorem facias si interesse in parte rei huius.
Artis Editio :Roj Rodriguez: www.rojrodriguez.com
Corpus meum opus itineris mei de Houston, TX – ubi natus sum et educatus – Novi Eboraci – ubi, expositae ad ethnic!, diversitas culturalis et oeconomicae oeconomicae eiusque unica sententia de immigrantibus– Renovatum inveni observantiam omnium culturae. Ego photographers bene confirmatum didici, iter per orbem late et cum multis doctorum summo in agro collaboravit. Cum Ianuarii, 2006, curriculo meo quasi sui iuris photographer factus est processus sumendi in personalis consequat inceptis quae ex meo sensu emergunt viae communicamus mundum et nostram exercent creationem pro toto.
