Ei apitiraa i to tatou “Te mau hoa e haapao ra ia ratou” faanahoraa tei horo'ahia e te UJA-Federation of New York, e faaite mai te Y i te mau uiuiraa mana'o a na taata e ono o te fenua iho no te taa maitai a'e i te aamu o te taata tata'itahi. E faaitehia teie mau uiuiraa mana'o i roto i te piha o te Fare Menemene i Hebera “Te faarururaa i te hoê tau tama'i e te tahi atu â: Te mau hoho'a o te feia i ora mai i te Taparahiraa a te mau Nazis”. E matara te piha i te mahana pae 8 no Novema.
Hannah Eisner worked at the Y for 18 mau matahiti, 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; Te mau mana'o tauturu no te, 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.
Ua faaterehia teie uiuiraa e te taata ra o Goldberg no te Y's Partners i roto i te faanahoraa Caring e tei roto oia i te YM&YWHA no Washington Heights e Inwood. Ua opani - etaeta - hia te faaohiparaa i teie tumu parau ma te ore e papaihia e te Y e te taata uiui. A imi i te tahi atu â haamaramaramaraa no nia i te mau hoa i roto i te porotarama aupururaa i ǒ nei: http://ywashhts.org/partners-caring-0
Te Sekene Hebera Armin e o Estelle Gold Wing Galleryi roto i te auhoaraa te'ote'o e tete MTHE&YWHA no Washington Heights e Inwoodte ani manihini nei ia oe ia haere mai i to matou neiNovema/December, 2013 Te mau mana'o tauturu no te“Te faarururaa i te hoê tau tama'i e te tahi atu â: Te mau hoho'a o te feia i ora mai i te Taparahiraa a te mau Nazis” e te mau hoho'a e te mau hoho'a tarai na: YAEL BEN-ZION, PETER BULOW e ROJ RODRIGUEZ. Amuihia'tu i te hoê ohipa taa ê tei ravehia i roto i te feruriraao te75Te oroa matahiti o Kristallnacht -te po o te parariraa o GlassTe mau ohipa e te mau ohipa rima î, Mahana pae, Novema, 2013 7:30 api.m.
Te hoê faahitiraa parau no roto mai i te Y : ” E rave rahi matahiti te maoro, ua riro te Washington Heights/Inwood Y, e te tamau noa nei â i te riro, e haapuraa no te feia e imi ra i te haapuraa, faatura e haro'aro'a. E rave rahi o te tomo mai i roto i to tatou mau uputa e o te amui mai i roto i ta tatou mau faanahoraa, tei faaruru i te mau tamataraa e te mau ati o te ore roa e ti'a ia tatou ia feruri. No te tahi pae, o vai te riro ei tuhaa no teie faaiteiteraa, ua itehia te hoê o taua mau ohipa ri'ari'a ra i roto i te ao nei mai " Te Taparahiraa i te mau ati Iuda " – te haapoheraa tamau e ono mirioni ati Iuda no Europa.
Te haamana'o nei matou i te mau mea i tupu i mutaa ihora, faatura i te feia tei ora e tei pohe i roto i taua area taime ra, e a paruru i te parau mau no te mau u'i a muri a'e. No tatou iho e no ta tatou mau tamarii, e ti'a ia tatou ia faati'a i te mau aamu no te feia tei faaruru i te mau ino o te tama'i. Te vai ra te mau haapiiraa e huti mai no a muri a'e. Na Halley Goldberg i papa'i i te mau uiuiraa, te hoê taata haapa'o i te faanahoraa " Te mau hoa i roto i te aupururaa ". Ua ravehia teie faanahoraa faufaa rahi na roto i te horo'araa i te parau faati'a a te UJA-Federation no New York, hamanihia no te haamaitai i te mau auraa e te mau sunago i Washington Heights e Inwood. “
Te faaite ra ta tatou faaiteiteraa amui i te mau hoho'a e te mau uiuiraa mana'o o te feia i ora mai i te Taparahiraa ati Iuda, Hannah Eisner, Charlie e Te Mau Hau Amui no Marite, Pearl Rosenzveig, Fredy Seidel e Ruth Wertheimer, e melo ana'e ratou paatoa no Te Sekene Hebera, te hoê amuiraa ati Iuda ta te mau ati Iuda Helemani e rave rahi i faarue i te mau Nazi e o tei manuïa i te haere mai i Marite, amuihia'tu i te hopea o te mau matahiti 1930. Taa ê noa'tu i te reira, e faahanahana atoa tatou i te taata tei ora mai i te Taparahiraa a te mau Nazis Gizelle Schwartz Bulow- metua vahine o to matou taata peni hoho'a o Peter Bulow e o WWII tei ora mai o Yan Neznanskiy – metua tane o te raatira o te porotarama rahi a te Y, Victoria Neznas.
Te hoê taviniraa taa ê no te Sabati, e te mau taata a'o, ei haamana'oraa i te 75raa o te matahiti o Kristallnacht (te pô no te parariraa te ofa'i) na mua a'e i te iritiraa o te gold Gallery/Y exhibit:E haamata oioi te mau pureraa i te 7:30 pm. Ua titau-manihini-hia te taatoaraa ia tae mai.
No te mau hora matara noa aore ra no te tahi atu mau haamaramaramaraa, a niuniu atu i te sunago i te212-568-8304 e aore râ, a hi'ohttp://www.hebrewtabernacle.orgParau a te taata peni hoho'a: Yael Ben-Zionwww.yaelbenzion.comUa fanauhia o Yael Ben-Zion i Minneapolis, MN e ua paari i Iseraela. Ua roaa ta'na parau tu'ite i roto i te International Center of Photography's General Studies Program. Ua farii o Ben-Zion i te mau feti'a e te mau feti'a huru rau, No roto mai i te Puffin Foundation e no NoMAA, e ua itehia ta'na ohipa i te Mau Hau Amui no Marite e i Europa. Ua nene'i oia e piti hoho'a no ta'na ohipa. Te ora nei oia i Washington Heights e ta'na tane faaipoipo, e ta raua na maehaa tamaroa.
Parau a te taata peni hoho'a: Ua faaora faahou o Petero ia Petero: www.peterbulow.com
To'u metua vahine i to'u tamariiriiraa, ua tapuni oia i te tau o te Taparahiraa i te mau ati Iuda. I te roaraa o te mau matahiti, to'na iteraa, e aore râ, te mea ta'u i mana'o e, ua tupu te reira i ni'a ia'na, ua faatupu te reira i te hoê faaûruraa rahi i ni'a ia'u. E itehia teie mana i roto i to'u iho oraraa e i roto i to'u oraraa. Ua fanauhia vau i Inidia, ua ora i to'u tamariiriiraa i Berlin e ua reva i te fenua Marite e to'u na metua i te 16raa o to'na matahiti. 8. Te vai nei to'u ite i te mau ohipa rima î i roto i te mau hoho'a peni. Te fana'o atoa nei au i te hoê parau faatia o te faatia ia ' u ia hamani i te tahi mau pereoo uta taata iti o te feia i ora mai i te Taparahiraa a te mau Nazis. A faaite mai na ia'u e, te hinaaro ra anei oe ia riro ei tuhaa no teie opuaraa.
Parau a te taata peni hoho'a :Roj Rodriguez: www.rojrodriguez.com
Te faaite ra to ' u tino ohipa i to ' u tere mai Houston mai, TX – i reira to ' u fanauraahia e to ' u paariraa – i New York – i reira, i mua i to'na nunaa, te huru rau i te pae no te ihotumu e i te pae faanavairaa faufaa e to ' na mana'o otahi no nia i te feia ěê– Ua itea mai ia ' u te hoê faatura apî no te ta'ere o te mau taata atoa. Ua haapii au i te mau taata pata hoho'a aravihi, ua ratere rahi na te ao nei e ua rave amui i te ohipa e te mau taata aravihi e rave rahi i roto i te ohipa. Mai te ava'e tenuare mai â, 2006, ua riro to'u toro'a ei taata pata hoho'a ti'amâ ei rave'a no te raveraa i ta'u iho mau opuaraa, o te matara mai na roto i to'u iho iteraa no ni'a i te huru o ta tatou opereraa i te ao nei e te faaohiparaa i to tatou aravihi i roto i te taatoaraa.
