En collaboration avec notre “Partenaires d'entraide” programme financé par l'UJA-Federation of New York, le Y présentera des entrevues avec six survivants locaux pour mieux comprendre l'histoire de chacun. Ces entretiens seront présentés à la galerie Hebrew Tabernacle “Vivre un temps de guerre et au-delà: Portraits de survivants fougueux de l'Holocauste”. La galerie ouvrira le vendredi 8 novembre.
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(photographie de 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.
Dans 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, et 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.
Cette entrevue a été réalisée par Halley Goldberg de l'initiative Partners in Caring du Y et appartient au YM&YWHA de Washington Heights et Inwood. L'utilisation de ce matériel sans le consentement écrit du Y et de la personne interrogée est strictement interdite. En savoir plus sur le programme Partners in Caring ici: http://ywashhts.org/partners-caring-0
Tabernacle hébreu Galerie Armin et Estelle Gold Wingen fier partenariat avecle MJ&YWHA de Washington Heights et Inwoodvous invite à notreNovembre Décembre, 2013 Exposition“Vivre un temps de guerre et au-delà: Portraits de survivants fougueux de l'Holocauste” avec photographies et sculptures de: YAEL BEN-ZION, PETER BULOW et ROJ RODRIGUEZ. En conjonction avec un Service spécial en mémoirede la75e anniversaire de Kristallnacht - la nuit du verre briséPrestations et vernissage des artistes, Vendredi, 8 novembre, 2013 7:30 après-midi.
Une déclaration du Y : ” Pendant des décennies, le Washington Heights/Inwood Y a été, et continue d'être, un refuge pour ceux qui cherchent refuge, respect et compréhension. Beaucoup de ceux qui franchissent nos portes et participent à nos programmes ont vécu des épreuves et des tribulations que nous ne pouvons même pas imaginer. Pour certains, qui fera partie de cette exposition, une de ces horreurs est devenue connue dans le monde simplement sous le nom de "L'Holocauste" – l'assassinat systématique de six millions de Juifs d'Europe.
Nous, au Y, nous souvenons du passé, honorer ceux qui ont vécu et sont morts pendant cette période, et sauvegarder la vérité pour les générations futures. Pour nous et nos enfants, nous devons transmettre les histoires de ceux qui ont connu les maux de la guerre. Il y a des leçons à tirer pour l'avenir. Les entretiens sont documentés par Halley Goldberg, un superviseur du programme « Partners in Caring ». Ce programme vital a été rendu possible grâce à une généreuse subvention de la UJA-Federation of New York, conçu pour améliorer les relations avec les synagogues de Washington Heights et Inwood. “
Notre exposition d'art conjointe présente des portraits et des interviews de survivants de l'Holocauste, Hannah Eisner, Charlie et Lilli Friedman, Perle Rosenzveig, Fredy Seidel et Ruth Wertheimer, qui sont tous membres du The Hebrew Tabernacle, une congrégation juive que de nombreux Juifs allemands fuyant les nazis et assez chanceux pour venir en Amérique, rejoint à la fin des années 1930. De plus, nous honorerons également la survivante de l'Holocauste Gizelle Schwartz Bulow- mère de notre artiste Peter Bulow et du survivant de la Seconde Guerre mondiale Yan Neznanskiy – père du directeur des programmes du Y, Victoria Neznanski.
Un service de sabbat spécial, avec haut-parleurs, en mémoire du 75e anniversaire de la nuit de cristal (la nuit du verre brisé) précède l'ouverture de l'exposition Gold Gallery/Y:Les services commencent à 7h précises:30 pm. Tous sont invités à y assister.
Pour les heures d'ouverture de la galerie ou pour plus d'informations, veuillez appeler la synagogue au212-568-8304 ou voirhttp://www.hebrewtabernacle.orgDéclaration de l'artiste: Yaël Ben Zionwww.yaelbenzion.comYael Ben-Zion est née à Minneapolis, MN et élevé en Israël. Elle est diplômée du programme d'études générales du Centre international de la photographie. Ben-Zion est le récipiendaire de diverses subventions et récompenses, plus récemment de la Puffin Foundation et de NoMAA, et son travail a été exposé aux États-Unis et en Europe. Elle a publié deux monographies de son travail. Elle vit à Washington Heights avec son mari, et leurs jumeaux.
Déclaration de l'artiste: Pierre Bulow: www.peterbulow.com
Ma mère enfant, s'était caché pendant l'Holocauste. Au cours des années, son expérience, ou ce que j'imaginais avoir été son expérience, a eu une grande influence sur moi. Cette influence se reflète tant dans ma vie personnelle que dans ma vie artistique. Je suis né en Inde, j'ai vécu comme un jeune enfant à Berlin et j'ai émigré aux États-Unis avec mes parents à l'âge 8. J'ai une maîtrise en beaux-arts en sculpture. Je suis également récipiendaire d'une bourse qui me permettra de réaliser un nombre limité de bustes en bronze de survivants de la Shoah. Veuillez me faire savoir si vous êtes intéressé à faire partie de ce projet.
Déclaration de l'artiste :Roj Rodríguez: www.rojrodriguez.com
Mon travail reflète mon voyage depuis Houston, TX - où je suis né et j'ai grandi - à New York - où, exposé à son ethnie, diversité culturelle et socioéconomique et son regard unique sur les immigrants– J'ai trouvé un respect renouvelé pour la culture de chacun. J'ai fait mon apprentissage avec des photographes bien établis, parcouru le monde et collaboré avec de nombreux professionnels de haut niveau dans le domaine. Depuis janvier, 2006, ma carrière de photographe indépendant est devenue un processus de réalisation de projets photographiques personnels qui émergent de ma propre compréhension de la façon dont nous partageons le monde et exerçons notre créativité dans son ensemble.
