In collaborazione con il ns “Partner nella cura” programma finanziato dalla UJA-Federation of New York, la Y conterrà le interviste di sei sopravvissuti locali per comprendere meglio la storia di ogni individuo. Queste interviste saranno presentate nella galleria del Tabernacolo Ebraico “Vivere un tempo di guerra e oltre: Ritratti di vivaci sopravvissuti all'Olocausto”. La galleria aprirà venerdì 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(fotografia di 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, Germania, 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, e 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.
Questa intervista è stata condotta da Halley Goldberg dell'iniziativa Y's Partners in Caring e appartiene a YM&YWHA di Washington Heights e Inwood. L'uso di questo materiale senza il consenso scritto di Y e dell'intervistato è severamente vietato. Scopri di più sul programma Partners in Caring qui: http://ywashhts.org/partners-caring-0
Tabernacolo Ebraico Galleria Armin ed Estelle Gold Wingin orgogliosa collaborazione conil YM&YWHA di Washington Heights e Inwoodti invita al nostroNovembre dicembre, 2013 Mostra“Vivere un tempo di guerra e oltre: Ritratti di vivaci sopravvissuti all'Olocausto” con fotografie e sculture di: YAEL BEN-ZION, PETER BULOW e ROJ RODRIGUEZ. In abbinamento ad uno speciale Servizio in memoriadel75esimo anniversario della Kristallnacht - la notte dei vetri rottiServizi e ricevimento di apertura dell'artista, Venerdì, 8 novembre, 2013 7:30 p.m.
Una dichiarazione di Y : ” Per decenni il Washington Heights/Inwood Y è stato, e continua ad esserlo, un rifugio per chi cerca rifugio, rispetto e comprensione. Molti di coloro che entrano dalle nostre porte e partecipano ai nostri programmi hanno vissuto prove e tribolazioni che non possiamo nemmeno immaginare. Per alcuni, che faranno parte di questa mostra, uno di questi orrori è diventato noto al mondo semplicemente come "L'Olocausto" – l'uccisione sistematica di sei milioni di ebrei d'Europa.
Noi della Y ricordiamo il passato, onora coloro che vissero e morirono in quel periodo, e salvaguardare la verità per le generazioni future. Per il bene nostro e dei nostri figli, dobbiamo tramandare le storie di coloro che hanno sperimentato i mali della guerra. Ci sono lezioni da imparare per il futuro. Le interviste sono documentate da Halley Goldberg, un supervisore del programma "Partners in Caring".. Questo programma vitale è stato reso possibile grazie a una generosa sovvenzione della UJA-Federation of New York, progettato per migliorare i rapporti con le sinagoghe di Washington Heights e Inwood. “
La nostra mostra d'arte congiunta presenta ritratti e interviste di sopravvissuti all'Olocausto, Hanna Eisner, Charlie e Lilli Friedmann, Perla Rosenzveig, Fredy Seidel e Ruth Wertheimer, tutti membri del Tabernacolo Ebraico, una congregazione ebraica che molti ebrei tedeschi fuggono dai nazisti e abbastanza fortunati da venire in America, aderito alla fine degli anni '30. Inoltre onoreremo anche la sopravvissuta all'Olocausto Gizelle Schwartz Bulow- madre del nostro artista Peter Bulow e sopravvissuto alla seconda guerra mondiale Yan Neznanskiy – padre del responsabile del programma di Y, Vittoria Neznansky.
Un servizio speciale per il sabato, con altoparlanti, in ricordo del 75° Anniversario della Notte dei Cristalli (la notte dei vetri rotti) precede l'apertura della mostra Gold Gallery/Y:I servizi iniziano puntualmente alle 7:30 pm. Tutti sono invitati a partecipare.
Per gli orari di apertura della galleria o per ulteriori informazioni si prega di chiamare la sinagoga al n212-568-8304 o vederehttp://www.hebrewtabernacle.orgDichiarazione dell'artista: Yael Ben Zionwww.yaelbenzion.comYael Ben Zion è nata a Minneapolis, MN e cresciuto in Israele. Si è laureata al programma di studi generali del Centro internazionale di fotografia. Ben-Zion ha ricevuto varie sovvenzioni e premi, più recentemente dalla Puffin Foundation e dal NoMAA, e il suo lavoro è stato esposto negli Stati Uniti e in Europa. Ha pubblicato due monografie del suo lavoro. Vive a Washington Heights con suo marito, e i loro gemelli.
Dichiarazione dell'artista: Peter Blow: www.peterbulow.com
Mia madre da bambina, era stato nascosto durante l'Olocausto. Negli anni, la sua esperienza, o quella che immaginavo fosse stata la sua esperienza, ha avuto una grande influenza su di me. Questa influenza si riflette sia nella mia vita personale che in quella artistica. Sono nato in India, vissuto da bambino a Berlino ed emigrato negli Stati Uniti con i miei genitori all'età 8. Ho un Master in Belle Arti in scultura. Sono anche destinatario di una borsa di studio che mi consentirà di realizzare un numero limitato di busti in bronzo di sopravvissuti all'Olocausto. Per favore fatemi sapere se siete interessati a far parte di questo progetto.
Dichiarazione dell'artista :Roj Rodriguez: www.rojrodriguez.com
Il mio corpo di lavoro riflette il mio viaggio da Houston, TX – dove sono nato e cresciuto – a New York – dove, esposto alla sua etnia, diversità culturale e socioeconomica e la sua visione unica degli immigrati– Ho trovato un rinnovato rispetto per la cultura di tutti. Ho lavorato come apprendista con fotografi affermati, ha viaggiato molto per il mondo e ha collaborato con molti dei migliori professionisti del settore. Da gennaio, 2006, la mia carriera di fotografo indipendente è diventata un processo di assunzione di progetti fotografici personali che emergono dalla mia comprensione del modo in cui condividiamo il mondo ed esercitiamo la nostra creatività nel suo insieme.
