In samewerking met ons “Vennote in Omgee” program befonds deur die UJA-Federasie van New York, die Y sal onderhoude met ses plaaslike oorlewendes bevat om die verhaal van elke individu beter te verstaan. Hierdie onderhoude sal in die Hebreeuse Tabernakel -galery ten toon gestel word “Ervaar 'n tyd van oorlog en verder: Portrette van geesdriftige Holocaust -oorlewendes”. Die galery word op Vrydag 8 November oopgemaak.
Ruth Wertheimer has been a member at the Y for over a decade. You can find Ruth at the Y for special events and programming, especially at Sunday concerts at the Center for Adults Living Well @ the Y.
Ruth Wertheimer(fotografie deur Roj Rodriguez: www.rojrodriguez.com)
Ruth Wertheimer was born in Mannheim, Germany on June 6, 1931. At the age of one, her father died. Her mother raised her and her older brother in Mannheim, Germany. Ruth’s mother owned a thrift shop in town. Growing up in Mannheim was difficult. She remembers having very little schooling as a child. Ruth recalls experiencing anti-Semitism from a very young age. She recounts being called a dirty Jew as well as being beaten up in the streets. The anti-Semitism was so rampant that Ruth’s brother used to take her to their grandmother’s house. They would avoid main roads to prevent being beaten up. Their mother could not join them because she was busy working at the family’s store.
In Mannheim, Germany, Kristallnacht began on November 10, 1938. Ruth recalls the events of Kristallnacht, “we lived in this place with an Orthodox synagogue that had a rabbi and a cantor. There was an office there for social workers and a Jewish school. These buildings surrounded a schoolyard…It started at 6 in the morning, you heard the noise of the burning buildings…it was terrible. There was a lot of noise and I was scared.” Ruth’s synagogue, The Haupt synagogue, was destroyed that day.
Once the destruction was finished, Ruth remembers her family’s store being completely ruined. “We had a beautiful photograph of my brother in color and they took it and put it out in the street…and wrote underneath ‘dirty Jew.’ Dirty Jew! It was a beautiful picture.” After seeing the destruction, Ruth’s family decided that they should leave the building they were living in. Her grandmother was a diabetic and she used to receive her injections from nuns so the family decided that it would be best to seek refuge with the nuns. The entire way there, they were followed by teenagers who were calling them ‘dirty Jew’. Ruth was able to find protection with the nuns for a while. From there, she and her family left to stay with relatives.
In 1940, Ruth’s brother celebrated his bar mitzvah in an Orthodox synagogue in Mannheim. Three weeks after this joyous occasion, she and her family were rounded up and brought to a camp called Camp Gurs in France. Ruth remembers “we had one hour to pack and we didn’t know where we were going. We were put in some kind of recreation hall overnight, I’m not sure anymore, and the next day we were put on a train and we did not know where we were going. I had a grand aunt that was there too and she was with us and she brought sugar cubes and lemon to eat. We had nothing to eat. Finally we arrived in the camp. It was horrible: you had mud up to your knees, you were in a barrack with 20 people maybe. Rat, mice, lice, you name it. You slept on the floor with straw.” After being in Camp Gurs for a year, someone from the organization OSE (Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants) came to the camp. OSE is a French- Jewish organization that saved hundreds of refugee children during the Holocaust. The representatives from OSE asked the parents in the camp if they wanted to give up their children. Ruth recollects that her mother never wanted to give up any of her children, but with great difficulty, she did. Ruth was given up first. From Camp Gurs, Ruth was taken to Chabannes. After being in Chabannes for some time, Ruth remembers that it was not safe there anymore and some of the older children were taken to Auschwitz. After this, OSE felt that it would be best to move the children.
Ruth was placed with a Jewish family for four months. She was then moved to a gentile family. Ruth remembers, “…my name was not Ruth anymore. I was Renee…I wasn’t Jewish then.” In France, children went to school on Saturdays instead of Thursdays. Ruth went to school on Saturdays. One day at school, the police came and began to question Ruth, “I was always told to tell the truth. So I told the police everything.” She informed the family that she was staying with and that night, social workers from OSE came and took Ruth and placed her in a convent in 1943. She changed her name again to Renee Latty.
While hiding in the convent, Ruth remembers, “I did the sign of the cross with the left hand, you are supposed to do it with the right hand! Then they brought me to church and I didn’t know anything. Everyone was going into a booth so I went too. It was a confession booth. I didn’t know what that was…I didn’t know what to do…I became so Catholic, that you didn’t know that I was never not Catholic.” Ruth stayed in the convent for about a year until the war was liberated.
After the war was liberated, Ruth stayed at different OSE homes. For two years, Ruth did not know where her brother was. She and her brother finally reunited at one of the OSE homes. They then lived in Limoges, France and then near Paris before traveling to America together.
At the age of 15, Ruth, her brother, en 72 other children traveled to America together on the children transport. They landed in America on September 7, 1946. The boat was overcrowded and many of the children were sea sick. When they arrived in New York, there was a strike at the pier and they could not dock. The OSE was able to arrange for a small boat to come and take the children ashore.
When Ruth first got to America, she lived with an aunt and uncle and says that it was very difficult for her. Shortly after, she moved to Queens with another relative. This relative had a daughter around the same age as Ruth. She remembers starting school and that her relative’s daughter went to a better school than she did. Ruth had a difficult time managing in school and her relatives told her that if she did not finish school, they would kick her out. Because she was having such difficulties in school, Ruth was kicked out in 1948.
Since June 1948, Ruth has lived in Washington Heights. She realized that she had to learn a trade in order to survive so she decided to go to beautician school. She attended the Wilfred Academy and fell in love with her courses. She went on to receive her beautician’s license. Hebrew Tabernacle was the first synagogue she joined since she came to America and she has been a member ever since. She has one son and two grandchildren who live in Wisconsin.
Hierdie onderhoud is gevoer deur Halley Goldberg van die Y's Partners in Caring -inisiatief en behoort aan die YM&YWHA van Washington Heights en Inwood. Die gebruik van hierdie materiaal sonder skriftelike toestemming van beide die Y en die ondervraagde is streng verbode. Lees hier meer oor die Partners in Caring -program: http://ywashhts.org/partners-caring-0
Hebreeuse tabernakel Armin en Estelle Gold Wing Galleryin trotse vennootskap metdie YM&YWHA van Washington Heights en Inwoodnooi u uit na onsNovember / Desember, 2013 Uitstalling“Ervaar 'n tyd van oorlog en verder: Portrette van geesdriftige Holocaust -oorlewendes” met foto's en beeldhouwerk deur: YAEL BEN-ZION, PETER BULOW en ROJ RODRIGUEZ. In samewerking met 'n spesiale diens ter herinneringvan die75die herdenking van Kristallnacht -die nag van gebroke glasDienste en onthaalontvangs vir kunstenaars, Vrydag, 8 November, 2013 7:30 nm.
'N Verklaring van die Y : ” Vir dekades was die Washington Heights/Inwood Y, en bly steeds, 'n toevlugsoord vir diegene wat skuiling soek, respek en begrip. Baie wat by ons ingaan en aan ons programme deelneem, het beproewinge beleef wat ons nie eers kan voorstel nie. Vir sommige, wat deel sal wees van hierdie uitstalling, so 'n gruwel het die wêreld bloot bekend geword as 'The Holocaust' – die stelselmatige moord op ses miljoen Jode van Europa.
Ons by die Y onthou die verlede, eer diegene wat gedurende daardie tyd gelewe en gesterf het, en die waarheid vir toekomstige geslagte beskerm. Ter wille van onsself en ons kinders, ons moet die verhale deurgee van diegene wat die euwels van oorlog beleef het. Daar is lesse te leer vir die toekoms. Die onderhoude word deur Halley Goldberg gedokumenteer, 'n programbegeleier van 'Partners in Caring'. Hierdie belangrike program is moontlik gemaak deur 'n ruim toekenning van die UJA-Federasie van New York, ontwerp om verhoudings met sinagoges in Washington Heights en Inwood te verbeter. “
Ons gesamentlike kunsuitstalling bevat portrette en onderhoude met oorlewendes van die Holocaust, Hannah Eisner, Charlie en Lilli Friedman, Pearl Rosenzveig, Fredy Seidel en Ruth Wertheimer, almal lede van die The Hebrew Tabernacle, 'n Joodse gemeente dat baie Duitse Jode van die Nazi's gevlug het en gelukkig was om na Amerika te kom, het in die laat 1930's aangesluit. Boonop vereer ons ook die oorlewende van die Holocaust, Gizelle Schwartz Bulow- ma van ons kunstenaar Peter Bulow en die oorlewende van die Tweede Wêreldoorlog Yan Neznanskiy - pa van die Y's Chief Program Officer, Victoria Neznansky.
'N Spesiale Sabbatsdiens, met sprekers, ter nagedagtenis aan die 75ste herdenking van Kristallnacht (die nag van gebroke glas) voorafgaan aan die opening van die Gold Gallery/Y -uitstalling:Dienste begin stiptelik om 7:30 pm. Almal word uitgenooi om dit by te woon.
Vir die openingstye van die galery of vir meer inligting, bel die sinagoge by212-568-8304 of sienhttp://www.hebrewtabernacle.orgKunstenaarsverklaring: Yael Ben-Zionwww.yaelbenzion.comYael Ben-Zion is in Minneapolis gebore, MN en grootgemaak in Israel. Sy is 'n gegradueerde van die International Center of Photography se algemene studieprogram. Ben-Zion ontvang verskeie toekennings en toekennings, mees onlangs van die Puffin Foundation en van NoMAA, en haar werk is in die Verenigde State en in Europa uitgestal. Sy het twee monografieë van haar werk gepubliseer. Sy woon saam met haar man in Washington Heights, en hul tweelingseuns.
Kunstenaarsverklaring: Peter Bulow: www.peterbulow.com
My ma as kind, was tydens die Holocaust weggekruip. Oor die jare, haar ervaring, of wat ek my voorgestel het dat dit haar ervaring was, het 'n groot invloed op my gehad. Hierdie invloed word weerspieël in my persoonlike sowel as in my artistieke lewe. Ek is in Indië gebore, woon as 'n jong kind in Berlyn en emigreer op ouderdom saam met my ouers na die VSA 8. Ek het 'n meestersgraad in beeldende kunste in beeldhoukuns. Ek ontvang ook 'n toelae wat my in staat sal stel om 'n beperkte aantal bronsborste van Holocaust -oorlewendes te maak. Laat weet my asseblief as u deel wil wees van hierdie projek.
Kunstenaarsverklaring :Roj Rodriguez: www.rojrodriguez.com
My werk weerspieël my reis van Houston, TX - waar ek gebore en getoë is - na New York - waar, blootgestel aan sy etniese, kulturele en sosio -ekonomiese diversiteit en sy unieke siening oor immigrante– Ek het 'n hernieude respek vir almal se kultuur gevind. Ek het geleer by gevestigde fotograwe, het die wêreld omvattend gereis en saamgewerk met baie professionele persone op die gebied. Sedert Januarie, 2006, my loopbaan as onafhanklike fotograaf het 'n proses geword van die neem van persoonlike fotoprojekte wat voortspruit uit my eie begrip van die manier waarop ons die wêreld deel en ons kreatiwiteit as geheel uitoefen.
