V spojení s našou “Partneri v starostlivosti” program financovaný UJA-Federation of New York, Y bude obsahovať rozhovory od šiestich miestnych ľudí, ktorí prežili, aby lepšie porozumeli príbehu každého jednotlivca. Tieto rozhovory budú prezentované v galérii Hebrew Tabernacle “Zažiť čas vojny a ešte ďalej: Portréty temperamentných preživších holokaustu”. Galéria bude otvorená v piatok 8. novembra.
Hannah Eisner worked at the Y for 18 rokov, 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.
Hannah Eisnerová(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; však, 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.
Tento rozhovor viedla Halley Goldberg z iniciatívy Y’s Partners in Caring a patrí do YM&YWHA z Washington Heights a Inwood. Použitie tohto materiálu bez písomného súhlasu Y a osoby, ktorá vedie rozhovor, je prísne zakázané. Viac informácií o programe Partners in Caring nájdete tu: http://ywashhts.org/partners-caring-0
Hebrejský Tabernacle's Galéria zlatých krídel Armina a Estellev hrdom partnerstve sYM&YWHA z Washington Heights a Inwoodvás pozýva na nášnovember/december, 2013 Ukážka“Zažiť čas vojny a ešte ďalej: Portréty temperamentných preživších holokaustu” s fotografiami a sochami od: YAEL BEN-ZION, PETER BULOW a ROJ RODRIGUEZ. V spojení so špeciálnou službou na pamiatkuz75výročie Krištáľovej noci - Noc rozbitého sklaSlužby a otváracia recepcia umelca, Piatok, 8. novembra, 2013 7:30 popoludnie.
Vyhlásenie od Y : ” Washington Heights/Inwood Y je už niekoľko desaťročí, a je aj naďalej, útočisko pre tých, ktorí hľadajú útočisko, rešpekt a pochopenie. Mnohí, ktorí vstupujú do našich dverí a zúčastňujú sa na našich programoch, prežili skúšky a súženia, ktoré si ani nevieme predstaviť. Pre niektoré, kto bude súčasťou tejto výstavy, jeden taký horor sa stal svetu známym jednoducho ako „holokaust“ – systematické vraždenie šiestich miliónov Židov v Európe.
My v Y spomíname na minulosť, ctiť tých, ktorí v tom čase žili a zomreli, a chrániť pravdu pre budúce generácie. V záujme nás samých a našich detí, musíme odovzdať príbehy tých, ktorí zažili zlo vojny. Je potrebné sa poučiť do budúcnosti. Rozhovory dokumentuje Halley Goldberg, supervízor programu „Partners in Caring“.. Tento životne dôležitý program bol umožnený vďaka štedrému grantu od UJA-Federation of New York, navrhnutý na zlepšenie vzťahov so synagógami vo Washington Heights a Inwood. “
Naša spoločná výstava obsahuje portréty a rozhovory tých, ktorí prežili holokaust, Hannah Eisnerová, Charlie a Lilli Friedmanovci, Perla Rosenzveigová, Fredy Seidel a Ruth Wertheimer, všetci sú členmi Hebrejského svätostánku, židovská kongregácia, z ktorej mnohí nemeckí Židia utekali pred nacistami a mali to šťastie, že prišli do Ameriky, vstúpil koncom 30. rokov 20. storočia. Okrem toho oceníme aj Gizelle Schwartz Bulow, ktorá prežila holokaust- matka nášho umelca Petra Bulowa a preživší 2. svetovú vojnu Yan Neznanskiy – otec hlavného programového riaditeľa Y, a zároveň byť stĺpom nádeje a sily.
Špeciálna sobotná služba, s reproduktormi, na pamiatku 75. výročia Krištáľovej noci (Noc rozbitého skla) predchádza vernisáži výstavy Gold Gallery/Y:Služby začínajú okamžite o 7:30 popoludnie. Všetci sú pozvaní zúčastniť sa.
Otváracie hodiny galérie alebo ďalšie informácie získate v synagóge na tel212-568-8304 alebo vidieťhttp://www.hebrewtabernacle.orgVyhlásenie umelca: Yael Ben-Zionwww.yaelbenzion.comYael Ben-Zion sa narodila v Minneapolise, MN a vyrastal v Izraeli. Je absolventkou všeobecného študijného programu Medzinárodného centra fotografie. Ben-Zion je príjemcom rôznych grantov a ocenení, naposledy od Puffin Foundation a od NoMAA, a jej práce boli vystavené v Spojených štátoch a v Európe. Zo svojej tvorby vydala dve monografie. So svojím manželom žije vo Washington Heights, a ich dvojičky chlapcov.
Vyhlásenie umelca: Peter Bulow: www.peterbulow.com
Moja matka ako dieťa, sa počas holokaustu skrýval. V priebehu rokov, jej skúsenosti, alebo čo som si predstavoval, že to bola jej skúsenosť, mal na mňa veľký vplyv. Tento vplyv sa odráža v mojom osobnom aj umeleckom živote. Narodil som sa v Indii, žil ako malé dieťa v Berlíne a vo veku s rodičmi emigroval do USA 8. Mám magisterský titul vo výtvarnom umení v sochárstve. Som tiež príjemcom grantu, ktorý mi umožní vyrobiť obmedzený počet bronzových búst preživších holokaustu. Prosím, dajte mi vedieť, ak máte záujem byť súčasťou tohto projektu.
Vyhlásenie umelca :Roj Rodriguez: www.rojrodriguez.com
Moja práca odráža moju cestu z Houstonu, TX – kde som sa narodil a vyrastal – do New Yorku – kde, vystavený svojmu etniku, kultúrnu a sociálno-ekonomickú rozmanitosť a jej jedinečný pohľad na prisťahovalcov– Našiel som obnovený rešpekt ku kultúre každého človeka. Vyučil som sa u osvedčených fotografov, veľa cestoval po svete a spolupracoval s mnohými špičkovými profesionálmi v tejto oblasti. Od januára, 2006, Moja kariéra nezávislého fotografa sa stala procesom prijímania osobných fotografických projektov, ktoré vychádzajú z môjho vlastného chápania spôsobu, akým zdieľame svet a ako celok uplatňujeme svoju kreativitu.
