U saradnji sa našim “Partneri u Caringu” program koji finansira UJA-Federacija New Yorka, Y će sadržavati intervjue sa šest lokalnih preživjelih kako bi bolje razumjeli priču svakog pojedinca. Ovi intervjui će biti izloženi u galeriji Hebrew Tabernacle “Doživljavanje vremena rata i dalje: Portreti nadahnutih preživjelih u holokaustu”. Galerija će biti otvorena u petak 8. novembra.
Pearl Rosenzveig has been a member of the Y since 1998.
Pearl Rosenzveig (Photograph by Yael Ben-Zion: www.yaelbenzion.com)
Pearl (Friedman) Rosenzveig was born in Simleu Silvania, Romania on February 22, 1919. The Friedman’s were the only Jewish family in Simleu Silvania. Her father owned a liquor, tobacco, and grocery store. She has a sister, Esther, who was born on January 21, 1921. Her mother’s side of the family resided in a town about 3 hours away by train. Pearl remembers her mother as a loving person, who was also a business woman. She described her mother as a conservative Jew.
In Simleu Silvania, there was only one school for all the children to attend, however there was no high school. Pearl recalls attending that school until her 7th year. She was a gifted gymnast and states that gymnastics was her favorite subject in school. When asked if Pearl experienced any anti-Semitism as a child, she remembered a story from her time in school. Pearl and her sister were in a play about Romania and all of the states within the country. Each child was given a state to play, while Esther was given the part of Romania. When the class performed the play for the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister asked the teacher why a Jew was playing the part of Romania.
Even though the Friedman’s were the only Jewish family in Simleu Silvania, they still practiced Judaism. They celebrated every Jewish holiday and they kept kosher. On Friday, Pearl’s father would travel to a nearby Hungarian town where there were more Jews and would attend Shabbat services. On high holy days, Pearl and her mother would travel to a town called Silvaniei to go to synagogue.
When Pearl was 15, the Prime Minister of Romania put restrictions on Jewish owned businesses. The Friedman’s lost their business and was forced to move to Simleu Silvaniei. Pearl attended community college in Simleu Silvaniei, but was told that she failed her classes because she was a Jew. This did not make any sense to Pearl because when the gym teacher was absent, Pearl was called to replace her because she was such a talented gymnast. Even though Pearl tried to fight her way to stay in school, she did not win. By age 17, Pearl left the school. When she realized she had limited opportunities in such a small town, in her early twenties Pearl moved to Budapest where one of her uncles lived. She needed to learn a skill in order to survive so Pearl learned to sew. Pearl wanted to maximize her opportunities to make a living, which is why she decided to move to Budapest. She took great interest in sewing, but wanted to improve so she took a class in pattern making. Pearl remembers that later on that she began sewing yellow stars onto clothing. She recalls, “When we were in the ghetto, we needed yellow stars on each item.” Pearl had been told many times that she did not look like a Jew. When Jews were unable to shop at stores, Pearl made the courageous decision to take off her yellow star and go shopping. One time she was stopped by a Hungarian police officer who asked her why sometimes he sees her with a yellow star and other times without the star. He told her, “You’re not Jewish. Take that star off forever.”
While in Budapest, Pearl was able to correspond with her parents by sending letters. However, she lost touch with her parents in the early 1940’s and Pearl knew that she had lost her parents forever. When reflecting on her feelings about the war, Pearl believes that the Hungarian government is responsible for the deaths of the Jews in Hungary.
After being in the ghetto for about two and half years, Pearl and the rest of the Jews were rounded up. She prepared by packing up her belongings. Pearl was sure to pack her mother’s jewelry and all the valuables that she had. In addition, she bought as much nonperishable food as she could so that she would not go hungry. One morning, the police came to the door and told her that she had five minutes to gather her belongings and leave. The police gathered a few thousand Jews in a lot. Pearl recalls that the police were extremely unorganized and eventually had to send all of the Jews home because they did not know what to do with all of them. She hoped that this would be the end, but it was not. In October 1943, she heard the knock on her door and once again she left the house. This time, it was for good. She remembers walking for what felt like forever. There were several thousand Jews that were forced to march day after day. When they would stop at night, Pearl remembers that they were given very little to eat. They served liquids only and she remembers the food being disgusting. She had no choice but to eat it. The Hungarian police orchestrated the march. Pearl felt disappointed, sad, and weak. She found the strength to carry on each day throughout the march. On the march, Pearl saw a woman coming out of her house. Pearl ran over to the woman and offered to give her the sweater she was wearing in exchange for any food. Pearl did not care that winter was coming. She was so hungry; all she could think about was getting food. The woman went into her house and came out with a lot of food for Pearl and she took the sweater.
Pearl recalls the march lasting from October to December. The weather got so cold, Pearl is glad that she did not lose her fingers on the march. She knew that she was walking to Germany, but she did not realize that she was walking to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. She reached Bergen-Belsen in January 1944. When she got to the concentration camp, all of Pearl’s jewelry including her earrings and watch were confiscated. She was stripped of everything; including her clothes. She was given clothing that was full of lice. On the days that it would snow, Pearl would strip herself down to nothing and wash herself with soap in the snow. When she was done, she had to put her dirty clothes back on and go back to the barracks. When more people would come to the camp, Pearl would do what she could to make room for people in the barracks. This would leave her without a place to sleep. She stayed in the cold corridor and became very ill.
When the camp was liberated, Pearl saw British soldiers coming to the camp. She recalls them intimidating the German soldiers. After a week, Pearl was moved from Bergen-Belsen to a better facility in Germany. She remembers being fed a little better. Everyone was still very sick from the filth of the camp. A nurse came to help the refugees including Pearl who had come down with shingles. Eventually the Swedish came and opened their borders to the refugees and offered assistance to them. In 1945, Pearl decided that she wanted to go to Sweden. She was taken there along with other refugees. The refugees were taken care of by doctors and admitted to hospitals if they needed extra medical attention.
The refugees were put into Swedish summer homes outside of Stockholm. She recalls being placed with Czech, Hungarian, and Romanian refugees. She stayed there for two years. Pearl was very happy when she was there. She was given new clothes every season so she could be comfortable. After several years in Sweden, Pearl wrote to an uncle she found in New York. Her uncle immediately sent her $100. She used this money to buy herself a watch and to get her teeth fixed since they had been damaged from the war. Once she got herself fixed up, Pearl asked her uncle to help her come to America. Even though Pearl loved her life in Sweden, she wanted to be in New York with her family. She thought she would have to wait years to get to America because the Romanian quota was so small, but she and her uncle were able to work out a way to get Pearl to America as quickly as possible. The first affidavit that her uncle was able to get for her was not enough to get her into the country so her uncle asked a friend of his for help. This friend helped get Pearl an adequate affidavit to come to America.
On June 14, 1948, Pearl arrived in New York City. Her aunt was at the harbor waiting for her. She recognized Pearl by the pictures she had sent. She then lived with her aunt and uncle, and worked as a seamstress.
Pearl never imagined that she would marry an American man. She recalls that she met her husband when she was visiting a friend. She married Max Rosenzveig and they had 2 daughters. Pearl has six grandchildren.
This interview was transcribed (from a previoulsy recorded interview) by Halley Goldberg of the Y’s Partners in Caring initiative and belongs to the YM&YWHA iz Washington Heightsa i Inwooda. Upotreba ovog materijala bez pismenog pristanka i Y i sagovornika je strogo zabranjena. Saznajte više o programu Partners in Caring ovdje: http://ywashhts.org/partners-caring-0
Hebrejski tabernakul Armin i Estelle Gold Wing Galleryu ponosnom partnerstvu saYM&YWHA iz Washington Heightsa i Inwoodapoziva vas na našunovembar/decembar, 2013 Dokaz“Doživljavanje vremena rata i dalje: Portreti nadahnutih preživjelih u holokaustu” sa fotografijama i skulpturama: YAEL BEN-ZION, PETER BULOW i ROJ RODRIGUEZ. U kombinaciji sa posebnom uslugom u memorijiof the75godišnjice Kristalne noći - Noći razbijenog staklaUsluge i prijem otvaranja umjetnika, Petak, 8. novembar, 2013 7:30 p.
Izjava Y : ” Decenijama je bio Washington Heights/Inwood Y, i nastavlja da bude, raj za one koji traže utočište, poštovanje i razumevanje. Mnogi koji ulaze na naša vrata i učestvuju u našim programima prošli su kroz iskušenja i nevolje koje ne možemo ni zamisliti. Za neke, ko će biti deo ove izložbe, jedan takav horor postao je poznat svijetu jednostavno kao "Holokaust" – sistematsko ubistvo šest miliona Jevreja Evrope.
Mi u Y pamtimo prošlost, odati počast onima koji su živjeli i umrli u to vrijeme, i čuvati istinu za buduće generacije. Zbog nas samih i naše djece, moramo prenositi priče onih koji su iskusili zla rata. Postoje lekcije koje treba naučiti za budućnost. Intervjue je dokumentovala Halley Goldberg, supervizor programa “Partneri u brizi”.. Ovaj vitalni program je omogućen zahvaljujući velikodušnoj donaciji UJA-Federacije New Yorka, dizajniran da poboljša odnose sa sinagogama u Washington Heightsu i Inwoodu. “
Naša zajednička umjetnička izložba sadrži portrete i intervjue preživjelih Holokausta, Hannah Eisner, Charlie i Lilli Friedman, Pearl Rosenzveig, Fredy Seidel i Ruth Wertheimer, svi koji su članovi Hebrejskog tabernakula, jevrejska kongregacija da mnogi njemački Jevreji bježe od nacista i imaju sreće da dođu u Ameriku, pridružio se kasnih 1930-ih. Osim toga, također ćemo odati počast Gizelle Schwartz Bulow koja je preživjela Holokaust- majka našeg umjetnika Petera Bulowa i preživjelog Drugog svjetskog rata Yana Neznanskiy - oca glavnog programskog direktora Y's, Victoria Neznansky.
Posebna subotna služba, sa zvučnicima, u znak sjećanja na 75. godišnjicu Kristalne noći (Noć slomljenog stakla) prethodi otvaranju izložbe Gold Gallery/Y:Usluge počinju odmah u 7:30 pm. Svi su pozvani da prisustvuju.
Za radno vrijeme galerije ili dodatne informacije pozovite sinagogu na broj212-568-8304 ili vidihttp://www.hebrewtabernacle.orgIzjava umjetnika: Yael Ben-Zionwww.yaelbenzion.comYael Ben-Zion je rođena u Minneapolisu, MN i odrastao u Izraelu. Diplomirala je na Općem studijskom programu Međunarodnog centra za fotografiju. Ben-Zion je dobitnik raznih grantova i nagrada, nedavno od Puffin fondacije i od NoMAA, a njeni radovi su izlagani u Sjedinjenim Državama i Evropi. Objavila je dvije monografije o svom radu. Živi u Washington Heightsu sa suprugom, i njihovi dečaci blizanci.
Izjava umjetnika: Peter Bulow: www.peterbulow.com
Moja majka kao dijete, krio se tokom Holokausta. Tokom godina, njeno iskustvo, ili ono što sam zamišljao da je njeno iskustvo, je imao veliki uticaj na mene. Taj uticaj se ogleda i u mom ličnom i u umetničkom životu. Rođen sam u Indiji, živio sam kao malo dijete u Berlinu i emigrirao u SAD sa svojim roditeljima u dobi 8. Magistrirao sam likovne umjetnosti iz skulpture. Također sam dobitnik granta koji će mi omogućiti da napravim ograničen broj bronzanih bista preživjelih Holokausta. Javite mi ako ste zainteresirani da budete dio ovog projekta.
Izjava umjetnika :Roj Rodriguez: www.rojrodriguez.com
Moj radni dio odražava moje putovanje iz Hjustona, TX – gdje sam rođen i odrastao – u New York – gdje, izložena svojoj etničkoj, kulturnu i socioekonomsku raznolikost i jedinstven pogled na imigrante– Pronašao sam obnovljeno poštovanje za svačiju kulturu. Učio sam kod renomiranih fotografa, putovao je svijetom i sarađivao sa mnogim vrhunskim profesionalcima u ovoj oblasti. Od januara, 2006, moja karijera nezavisnog fotografa postala je proces preuzimanja ličnih fotografskih projekata koji proizlaze iz mog vlastitog razumijevanja načina na koji dijelimo svijet i ispoljavanja naše kreativnosti u cjelini.
