I samband med vår “Partners in Caring” program finansierat av UJA-Federation of New York, Y kommer att innehålla intervjuer från sex lokala överlevande för att bättre förstå varje individs berättelse. Dessa intervjuer kommer att visas upp i det hebreiska tabernaklet “Uppleva en tid av krig och framåt: Porträtt av spirituella överlevande från förintelsen”. Galleriet öppnar fredagen den 8 november.
Hannah Eisner worked at the Y for 18 år, 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; dock, 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.
Den här intervjun genomfördes av Halley Goldberg från Y's Partners in Caring-initiativet och tillhör YM&YWHA i Washington Heights och Inwood. Användning av detta material utan skriftligt medgivande från både Y och intervjupersonen är strängt förbjudet. Läs mer om Partners in Caring-programmet här: http://ywashhts.org/partners-caring-0
Hebreiska Tabernaklet Armin och Estelle Gold Wing Galleryi stolt samarbete medDe m&YWHA i Washington Heights och Inwoodbjuder in till vårNovember december, 2013 Utställning“Uppleva en tid av krig och framåt: Porträtt av spirituella överlevande från förintelsen” med fotografier och skulptur av: YAEL BEN-ZION, PETER BULOW och ROJ RODRIGUEZ. I samband med en speciell minnesgudstjänstav75årsdagen av Kristallnatten - Natten av krossat glasTjänster och konstnärsöppningsmottagning, fredag, 8 november, 2013 7:30 p.m.
Ett uttalande från Y : ” I decennier har Washington Heights/Inwood Y varit det, och fortsätter att vara, en fristad för dem som söker skydd, respekt och förståelse. Många som går in genom våra dörrar och deltar i våra program har genomlevt prövningar och vedermödor som vi inte ens kan börja föreställa oss. För vissa, som kommer att vara en del av denna utställning, en sådan fasa har kommit att bli känd för världen helt enkelt som "Förintelsen" – det systematiska mordet på sex miljoner judar i Europa.
Vi på Y minns det förflutna, hedra dem som levde och dog under den tiden, och skydda sanningen för framtida generationer. För oss själva och våra barns skull, vi måste förmedla berättelserna om dem som har upplevt krigets ondska. Det finns lärdomar att dra för framtiden. Intervjuerna är dokumenterade av Halley Goldberg, en handledare för programmet "Partners in Caring".. Detta viktiga program möjliggjordes genom ett generöst anslag från UJA-Federation of New York, utformad för att förbättra relationerna med synagogor i Washington Heights och Inwood. “
Vår gemensamma konstutställning innehåller porträtt och intervjuer av överlevande från Förintelsen, Hannah Eisner, Charlie och Lilli Friedman, Pärla Rosenzveig, Fredy Seidel och Ruth Wertheimer, som alla är medlemmar av det hebreiska tabernaklet, en judisk församling där många tyska judar flyr från nazisterna och har turen att komma till Amerika, gick med i slutet av 1930-talet. Dessutom kommer vi också att hedra förintelsens överlevande Gizelle Schwartz Bulow- mamma till vår artist Peter Bulow och överlevande från andra världskriget Yan Neznanskiy – far till Y:s Chief Program Officer, Victoria Neznansky.
En speciell sabbatsgudstjänst, med högtalare, till minne av 75-årsdagen av Kristallnatten (Natten av krossat glas) före öppningen av Guldgalleriet/Y-utställningen:Gudstjänsterna börjar omgående kl 7:30 kl. Alla är välkomna att delta.
För galleriets öppettider eller för ytterligare information ring synagogan på kl212-568-8304 eller sehttp://www.hebrewtabernacle.orgKonstnärens uttalande: Yael Ben-Zionwww.yaelbenzion.comYael Ben-Zion föddes i Minneapolis, MN och uppvuxen i Israel. Hon är utexaminerad från International Center of Photography's General Studies Program. Ben-Zion är mottagare av olika bidrag och utmärkelser, senast från Puffin Foundation och från NoMAA, och hennes verk har ställts ut i USA och i Europa. Hon har publicerat två monografier av sitt arbete. Hon bor i Washington Heights med sin man, och deras tvillingpojkar.
Konstnärens uttalande: Peter Bulow: www.peterbulow.com
Min mamma som barn, hade gömt sig under förintelsen. Över åren, hennes erfarenhet, eller vad jag föreställde mig var hennes upplevelse, har haft ett stort inflytande på mig. Detta inflytande återspeglas både i mitt personliga och i mitt konstnärliga liv. Jag är född i Indien, bodde som litet barn i Berlin och emigrerade till USA med mina föräldrar vid ålder 8. Jag har en magisterexamen i konst i skulptur. Jag är också mottagare av ett bidrag som gör att jag kan göra ett begränsat antal bronsbyster av överlevande från Förintelsen. Vänligen meddela mig om du är intresserad av att vara en del av detta projekt.
Konstnärens uttalande :Roj Rodriguez: www.rojrodriguez.com
Mitt arbete speglar min resa från Houston, TX – där jag är född och uppvuxen – till New York – där, utsatt för sin etniska, kulturell och socioekonomisk mångfald och dess unika syn på invandrare– Jag hittade en förnyad respekt för allas kultur. Jag har gått i lärling hos väletablerade fotografer, reste världen runt mycket och samarbetade med många toppproffs inom området. Sedan januari, 2006, min karriär som oberoende fotograf har blivit en process där jag tar mig an personliga fotoprojekt som kommer från min egen förståelse för hur vi delar världen och utövar vår kreativitet som helhet.
