V povezavi z našimi “Partnerji v skrbi” program, ki ga financira UJA-Federation of New York, Y bo vseboval intervjuje s šestimi lokalnimi preživelimi, da bi bolje razumeli zgodbo vsakega posameznika. Ti intervjuji bodo predstavljeni v galeriji Hebrew Tabernacle “Doživljanje časa vojne in pozneje: Portreti živahnih preživelih holokavsta”. Galerijo bomo odprli v petek, 8. novembra.
Hannah Eisner worked at the Y for 18 let, 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 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; vendar, 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.
Ta intervju je vodila Halley Goldberg iz pobude Y's Partners in Caring in pripada YM&YWHA iz Washington Heightsa in Inwooda. Uporaba tega materiala brez pisnega soglasja Y in intervjuvanca je strogo prepovedana. Več o programu Partners in Caring najdete tukaj: http://ywashhts.org/partners-caring-0
Hebrejski tabernakelj Galerija Armin in Estelle Gold Wingv ponosnem sodelovanju zYM&YWHA iz Washington Heightsa in Inwoodavas vabi na našonovember/december, 2013 Razstava“Doživljanje časa vojne in pozneje: Portreti živahnih preživelih holokavsta” s fotografijami in kiparstvom avtor: YAEL BEN-ZION, PETER BULOW in ROJ RODRIGUEZ. V povezavi s posebno storitvijo v spominuod75obletnica Kristalne noči - noči razbitega steklaStoritve in umetnikov otvoritveni sprejem, Petek, 8. november, 2013 7:30 popoldan.
Izjava Y : ” Že desetletja je bil Washington Heights/Inwood Y, in ostaja, zatočišče za tiste, ki iščejo zatočišče, spoštovanje in razumevanje. Mnogi, ki vstopijo na naša vrata in sodelujejo v naših programih, so preživeli preizkušnje in stiske, ki si jih ne moremo niti predstavljati.. Za nekatere, ki bo del te razstave, ena takih grozljivk je postala svetu znana preprosto kot "holokavst" – sistematičnega pomora šestih milijonov Judov v Evropi.
V Y se spominjamo preteklosti, spoštovati tiste, ki so živeli in umrli v tem času, in zaščititi resnico za prihodnje generacije. Zaradi nas samih in naših otrok, prenašati moramo zgodbe tistih, ki so izkusili zlo vojne. Za prihodnost se je treba naučiti. Intervjuje je dokumentirala Halley Goldberg, supervizor programa »Partners in Caring«.. Ta vitalni program je bil omogočen z velikodušno donacijo UJA-Federation of New York, zasnovan za krepitev odnosov s sinagogami v Washington Heightsu in Inwoodu. “
Naša skupna umetniška razstava vključuje portrete in intervjuje preživelih holokavsta, Hannah Eisner, Charlie in Lilli Friedman, Pearl Rosenzveig, Fredy Seidel in Ruth Wertheimer, vsi so člani Hebrejskega tabernaklja, judovska kongregacija, v kateri so številni nemški Judje bežali pred nacisti in imeli srečo, da so prišli v Ameriko, pridružil v poznih 1930-ih. Poleg tega bomo počastili tudi preživelo holokavst Gizelle Schwartz Bulow- mati našega umetnika Petra Bulowa in preživelega druge svetovne vojne Yana Neznanskega – očeta vodje programa Y's, Victoria Neznansky.
Posebna sobotna služba, z zvočniki, v spomin na 75. obletnico Kristalne noči (noč razbitega stekla) pred odprtjem razstave Gold Gallery/Y:Storitve se začnejo točno ob 7:30 popoldan. Vsi vabljeni k udeležbi.
Za odprte ure galerije ali dodatne informacije pokličite sinagogo na št212-568-8304 ali glejhttp://www.hebrewtabernacle.orgIzjava umetnika: Yael Ben-Zionwww.yaelbenzion.comYael Ben-Zion se je rodila v Minneapolisu, MN in vzgojen v Izraelu. Je diplomantka splošnega študijskega programa Mednarodnega centra za fotografijo. Ben-Zion je prejemnik različnih štipendij in nagrad, nazadnje iz fundacije Puffin in iz NoMAA, in njena dela so bila razstavljena v ZDA in Evropi. O svojem delu je izdala dve monografiji. Z možem živi v Washington Heightsu, in njuna dvojčka.
Izjava umetnika: Peter Bulow: www.peterbulow.com
Moja mama kot otrok, se je med holokavstom skrival. Skozi leta, njena izkušnja, ali kar sem si predstavljal, da je bila njena izkušnja, je imel velik vpliv name. Ta vpliv se odraža tako v mojem osebnem kot v umetniškem življenju. Rodil sem se v Indiji, živel kot majhen otrok v Berlinu in pri starosti emigriral v ZDA s starši 8. Imam magisterij iz likovne umetnosti iz kiparstva. Sem tudi prejemnik štipendije, ki mi bo omogočila izdelavo omejenega števila bronastih doprsnih kipov preživelih holokavsta. Sporočite mi, če vas zanima sodelovanje pri tem projektu.
Izjava umetnika :Roj Rodriguez: www.rojrodriguez.com
Moje delo odraža moje potovanje iz Houstona, TX – kjer sem se rodil in odraščal – v New York – kje, izpostavljen svojemu etničnemu, kulturno in družbeno-ekonomsko raznolikost ter edinstven pogled na priseljence– Našel sem ponovno spoštovanje do kulture vseh. Izobraževal sem se pri uveljavljenih fotografih, je veliko potoval po svetu in sodeloval s številnimi vrhunskimi strokovnjaki na tem področju. Od januarja, 2006, moja kariera neodvisnega fotografa je postala proces prevzemanja osebnih fotografskih projektov, ki izhajajo iz mojega lastnega razumevanja načina, kako si delimo svet in uveljavljamo svojo ustvarjalnost kot celoto.
