Na njikọ anyị “Ndị mmekọ na Nlekọta” mmemme nke UJA-Federation nke New York kwadoro, Y ga-egosipụta ajụjụ ọnụ sitere n'aka ndị lanarịrị obodo isii ka ha ghọta nke ọma akụkọ onye ọ bụla. A ga-egosi ajụjụ ọnụ ndị a n’ebe a na-edebe Ụlọikwuu Hibru “Inwe oge agha na gafere: Eserese nke ndị lanarịrị Oké Mgbukpọ mmụọ”. Ụlọ ihe ngosi nka ga-emeghe na Fraịde 8th nke November.
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.
N'ime 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, na 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.
Halley Goldberg nke Y's Partners in Careing initiative mere ajụjụ ọnụ a ma bụrụ nke YM.&YWHA nke Washington Heights na Inwood. A machibidoro iji ihe a eme ihe na-enweghị nkwenye ederede site na ma Y na onye a gbara ajụjụ ọnụ. Chọpụta ihe gbasara mmemme mmekọ na nlekọta ebe a: http://ywashhts.org/partners-caring-0
Ụlọikwuu Hibru Armin na Estelle Gold Wing Galleryna mpako mmekorita nanke YM&YWHA nke Washington Heights na Inwoodna-akpọ gị òkù ka anyị bịaNọvemba/December, 2013 Ihe ngosi“Inwe oge agha na gafere: Eserese nke ndị lanarịrị Oké Mgbukpọ mmụọ” ya na foto na ihe ọkpụkpụ site: YAEL BEN-ZION, PETER BULOW na ROJ RODRIGUEZ. Na njikọ na ọrụ pụrụ iche na ebe nchekwanke75th ncheta nke Kristallnacht - Abali nke iko gbajiri agbajiỌrụ na nnabata mmeghe nke onye nka, Fraide, Nọvemba 8th, 2013 7:30 elekere.
Nkwupụta sitere na Y : ” Ruo ọtụtụ iri afọ Washington Heights/Inwood Y anọwo, na-aga n'ihu na-adị, ebe mgbaba maka ndị na-achọ mgbaba, nkwanye ùgwù na nghọta. Ọtụtụ ndị na-abanye n'ọnụ ụzọ anyị ma na-ekere òkè n'usoro ihe omume anyị agabigawo ule na mkpagbu ndị anyị na-apụghị ọbụna ịmalite iche n'echiche.. Maka ụfọdụ, onye ga-eso na ihe ngosi a, Otu n'ime ihe egwu dị otú ahụ abụrụla nke ụwa mara nanị dị ka “Oké Mgbukpọ ahụ” – ogbugbu e gburu nde ndị Juu isii nke Europe n'usoro.
Anyị nọ na Y na-echeta oge gara aga, sọpụrụ ndị dịrị ndụ na ndị nwụrụ anwụ n’oge ahụ, ma chebe eziokwu maka ọgbọ ndị dị n'ihu. Maka ọdịmma onwe anyị na ụmụ anyị, anyị ga-ebufe akụkọ nke ndị ahụ nwere ihe ọjọọ nke agha. Enwere ihe mmụta a ga-amụta n'ọdịnihu. Halley Goldberg dekọtara ajụjụ ọnụ a, onye nlekọta mmemme "Ndị Mmekọ na Nlekọta. Emere mmemme a dị mkpa site na onyinye mmesapụ aka sitere n'aka UJA-Federation nke New York, emebere iji kwalite mmekọrịta na ụlọ nzukọ dị na Washington Heights na Inwood. “
Ngosipụta nka anyị jikọtara ọnụ na-egosi eserese na ajụjụ ọnụ nke ndị lanarịrị Oké Mgbukpọ ahụ, Hannah Eisner, Charlie na Lilli Friedman, Pearl Rosenzveig, Fredy Seidel na Ruth Wertheimer, ndị nile bụ ndị òtù nke Ụlọikwuu Hibru, ọgbakọ ndị Juu nke ọtụtụ ndị Juu German na-agbapụ na ndị Nazi ma nwee obi ụtọ ịbịa America, sonyeere na ngwụcha 1930. Na mgbakwunye, anyị ga-asọpụrụ onye lanarịrị Oké Mgbukpọ Gizelle Schwartz Bulow- nne nke onye na-ese ihe anyị bụ Peter Bulow na onye lanarịrị WWII Yan Neznanskiy - nna nke Y's Chief Program Officer, Victoria Neznansky.
Ozi Ụbọchị Izu Ike pụrụ iche, ya na ndị ọkà okwu, na ebe nchekwa nke 75th Anniversary nke Kristallnacht (Abalị nke iko gbajiri agbaji) buru ụzọ meghee ihe ngosi Gold Gallery/Y:Ọrụ na-amalite ozugbo na 7:30 etiti abalị. A na-akpọ mmadụ niile òkù ịbịa.
Maka awa oghe ma ọ bụ maka ozi ndị ọzọ biko kpọọ ụlọ nzukọ na212-568-8304 ma ọ bụ hụhttp://www.hebrewtabernacle.orgNkwupụta onye nka: Yael Ben-Zionwww.yaelbenzion.comA mụrụ Yael Ben-Zion na Minneapolis, MN ma zụlitere na Israel. Ọ bụ onye gụsịrị akwụkwọ na International Center of Photography's General Studies Program. Ben-Zion bụ onye natara onyinye na onyinye dị iche iche, kacha nso nso a site na Puffin Foundation na site na NoMAA, na egosiputa ọrụ ya na United States na Europe. O bipụtala monograph abụọ nke ọrụ ya. Ya na di ya bi na Washington Heights, na ụmụ ejima ha.
Nkwupụta onye nka: Peter Bulow: www.peterbulow.com
Nne m mgbe ọ bụ nwata, anọwo na-ezo n'oge Oké Mgbukpọ ahụ. N'ime ọtụtụ afọ, ahụmahụ ya, ma ọ bụ ihe m chere na ọ bụ ahụmahụ ya, enwewo mmetụta dị ukwuu n'ahụ m. Mmetụta a na-egosipụta ma n'ime onwe m ma na ndụ nka m. A mụrụ m na India, biri dị ka nwantakịrị na Berlin wee kwaga US na nne na nna m mgbe m dị afọ 8. Enwere m Masters na Fine Arts na ọkpụkpụ ọkpụkpụ. Abụkwa m onye natara onyinye nke ga-eme ka m nwee ọnụ ọgụgụ buru ibu nke ọla kọpa nke ndị lanarịrị Oké Mgbukpọ ahụ.. Biko mee ka m mara ma ọ bụrụ na ị nwere mmasị isonye na ọrụ a.
Nkwupụta onye nka :Roj Rodriguez: www.rojrodriguez.com
Arụ ọrụ m na-egosipụta njem m si Houston, TX - ebe amuru m ma zụlite - na New York - ebe, kpughere agbụrụ ya, Omenala na mmekọrịta akụ na ụba dị iche iche na echiche ya pụrụ iche gbasara ndị kwabatara– Achọtara m nkwanye ùgwù ọzọ maka ọdịbendị onye ọ bụla. Amụtala m ndị na-ese foto nke ọma, na-eme njem n'ụwa nke ukwuu ma soro ọtụtụ ndị ọkachamara kachasị elu na ngalaba. Kemgbe Jenụwarị, 2006, Ọrụ m dị ka onye na-ese foto nọọrọ onwe ya abụrụla usoro ịse foto nke onwe nke na-apụta site na nghọta nke m banyere otu anyị si ekekọrịta ụwa ma na-egosipụta ihe okike anyị n'ozuzu ya.
