Kasali ang ating “Mga Kasosyo sa Pagmamalasakit” programa pinondohan ng UJA-Federation ng New York, ang Y ay magtatampok ng mga interbyu mula sa anim na lokal na nakaligtas upang mas maunawaan ang kuwento ng bawat indibidwal. Ang mga interbyung ito ay ipapakita sa gallery ng Hebreo Tabernacle “Nakararanas ng Panahon ng Digmaan at Higit Pa: Mga Larawan ng EspirituNg Holocaust nakaligtas”. Ang gallery ay bubukas sa Biyernes Nobyembre 8.
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(photography by 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.
Sa 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, at 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.
Ang interbyung ito ay isinasagawa ni Halley Goldberg ng Mga Kasosyo ng Y sa Caring inisyatibo at pag-aari ng YM&YWHA ng Washington Heights at Inwood. Ang paggamit ng materyal na ito nang walang nakasulat na pahintulot mula sa parehong Y at ang interbyu ay mahigpit na ipinagbabawal. Alamin ang higit pa tungkol sa mga Kasosyo sa Programa ng Pangangalaga dito: http://ywashhts.org/partners-caring-0
Hebreo Tabernacle ni Braso at Estelle Gold Wing Gallerysa palalo pakikipagsosyo saang YM&YWHA ng Washington Heights at Inwoodinaanyayahan ka sa amingNobyembre/Disyembre, 2013 Eksibit“Nakararanas ng Panahon ng Digmaan at Higit Pa: Mga Larawan ng EspirituNg Holocaust nakaligtas” na may mga larawan at iskultura na kuha ng: YAEL BEN-SION, PETER BULOW AT ROJ RODRIGUEZ. Kasali sa isang espesyal na Serbisyo sa memoryang75ika-anibersaryo ng Kristallnacht -ang Gabi ng Broken GlassSerbisyo at Pambungad na Pagtanggap ng Artista, Biyernes, Nobyembre 8, 2013 7:30 p.m.
Isang pahayag mula sa Y : ” Sa loob ng ilang dekada ang Washington Heights /Inwood Y ay, at patuloy na maging, isang kanlungan para sa mga naghahanap ng kanlungan, paggalang at pag-unawa. Maraming pumasok sa ating mga pintuan at lumahok sa ating mga programa ay nabuhay sa mga pagsubok at paghihirap na hindi natin maiisip. Para sa ilang mga, na magiging bahagi ng eksibit na ito, isa tulad nakakatakot ay dumating na kilala sa mundo bilang lamang "Ang Holocaust" – ang sistematikong pagpatay ng anim na milyong Judio ng Europa.
Naaalala namin sa Y ang nakaraan, igalang ang mga nabuhay at namatay noong panahong iyon, at pangalagaan ang katotohanan sa darating na mga henerasyon. Para sa kapakanan ng ating sarili at ng ating mga anak, kailangan nating ipasa ang mga kuwento ng mga nakaranas ng kasamaan ng digmaan. May mga aral na dapat matutuhan para sa hinaharap. Ang mga interbyu ay dokumentado ni Halley Goldberg, isang "Partners in Caring" program supervisor. Ang mahalagang programang ito ay ginawang posible sa pamamagitan ng isang bukas-palad na pagbibigay mula sa UJA-Federation ng New York, dinisenyo upang mapahusay ang relasyon sa mga sinagoga sa Washington Heights at Inwood. “
Ang aming pinagsamang art exhibit tampok ng mga larawan at interbyu ng mga nakaligtas ng Holocaust, Hannah Eisner, Charlie at Lilli Friedman, Perlas Rosenzveig, Fredy Seidel at Ruth Wertheimer, lahat sila ay mga miyembro ng Hebreo Tabernacle, isang kongregasyon ng mga Judio na maraming Judiong Aleman ang tumakas sa Nazis at mapalad sapat para pumunta sa Amerika, sumali sa huling bahagi ng 1930's. Bilang karagdagan din namin holocaust nakaligtas Gizelle Schwartz Bulow- ina ng aming pintor peter Bulow at WWII nakaligtas Yan Neznanskiy – ama ng Chief Program Officer ng Y, Victoria Neznansky.
Isang espesyal na Paglilingkod sa Araw ng Sabbath, na may mga tagapagsalita, sa alaala ng ika-75 Anibersaryo ng Kristallnacht (ang gabi ng Broken Glass) precedes ang pagbubukas ng Gold Gallery /Y exhibit:Ang mga serbisyo ay nagsisimula kaagad sa 7:30 pm. Lahat ay inaanyayahang dumalo.
Para sa gallery buksan oras o para sa karagdagang impormasyon mangyaring tumawag sa sinagoga sa212-568-8304 o tingnanhttp://www.hebrewtabernacle.orgPahayag ng Pintor: Yael Ben-Sionwww.yaelbenzion.comSi Yael Ben-Sion ay isinilang sa Minneapolis, MN at lumaki sa Israel. Nagtapos siya sa International Center of Photography's General Studies Program. Ben-Sion ay ang tumatanggap ng iba't-ibang mga grant at award, pinakahuli mula sa Puffin Foundation at mula sa NoMAA, at ang kanyang trabaho ay ipinapakita sa Estados Unidos at sa Europa. Siya ay naglathala ng dalawang monographs ng kanyang trabaho. Nakatira siya sa Washington Heights kasama ang kanyang asawa, at ang kanilang kambal na mga batang lalaki.
Pahayag ng Pintor: Bulowa ni Pedro: www.peterbulow.com
Ang nanay ko noong bata pa ako, ay sa pagtatago sa panahon ng Holocaust. Sa paglipas ng mga taon, ang kanyang karanasan, o kung ano ang naiisip ko na siya ang kanyang karanasan, nagkaroon ng malaking impluwensya sa akin. Ang impluwensyang ito ay makikita kapwa sa aking personal at sa aking artistikong buhay. Isinilang ako sa India, tumira noong bata pa ako sa Berlin at nandayuhan sa US kasama ang mga magulang ko sa edad na 8. Mayroon akong masters sa Fine Arts sa iskultura. Ako rin ang tumanggap ng isang grant na magpapahintulot sa akin na gumawa ng isang limitadong bilang ng mga bronze busts ng Holocaust nakaligtas. Mangyaring ipaalam sa akin kung ikaw ay interesado sa pagiging bahagi ng proyektong ito.
Pahayag ng Pintor :Roj Rodriguez: www.rojrodriguez.com
Ang aking katawan ng trabaho ay nagpapakita ng aking paglalakbay mula sa Houston, TX – kung saan ako ipinanganak at lumaki – sa New York – kung saan, nakalantad sa kanyang etniko, pagkakaiba-iba ng kultura at sosyo-ekonomya at ang natatanging tanawin nito sa mga imigrante– Nakakita ako ng panibagong paggalang sa kultura ng lahat. Ako ay apprenticed na may mahusay na itinatag photographer, naglakbay sa buong mundo malawak at collaborated sa maraming mga nangungunang propesyonal sa patlang. Mula noong Enero, 2006, ang trabaho ko bilang isang malayang photographer ay naging proseso ng pagkuha sa mga personal na proyekto ng photography na lumilitaw mula sa sarili kong pag-unawa sa paraan ng pagbabahagi natin sa mundo at ginagamit ang ating pagkamalikhain.
