Gandheng karo kita “Mitra ing ngrawat” program sing dibiayai dening UJA-Federation of New York, Y bakal nampilake wawancara saka enem wong sing slamet lokal kanggo luwih ngerti crita saben wong. Wawancara iki bakal dipamerake ing galeri Khemah Ibrani “Ngalami Wektu Perang lan Ngluwihi: Potret slamet Holocaust Spirited”. Galeri bakal dibukak ing dina Jumuah 8 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.kalamantri.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, Jerman, 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.
Ing 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, lan 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.
Wawancara iki ditindakake dening Halley Goldberg saka mitra Y's in Caring lan kalebu YM&YWHA saka Washington Heights lan Inwood. Panganggone materi iki tanpa idin tinulis saka kalorone Y lan wong sing diwawancarai dilarang banget. Sinau luwih lengkap babagan program Mitra ing Ngrawat ing kene: http://ywashhts.org/partners-caring-0
Kémah Suci Ibrani Galeri Sayap Emas Armin lan Estelleing kemitraan bangga karoing YM&YWHA saka Washington Heights lan Inwoodngajak sampeyan menyang kitaNovember / Desember, 2013 Pameran“Ngalami Wektu Perang lan Ngluwihi: Potret slamet Holocaust Spirited” kanthi foto lan patung dening: YAEL BEN-ZION, PETER BULOW lan ROJ RODRIGUEZ. Magepokan karo Layanan khusus ing memorisaka75Pengetan Kristallnacht - Wengi Kaca PatahResepsi Pembukaan Layanan lan Artis, Jumuah, 8 November, 2013 7:30 p.m.
Pratelan saka Y : ” Wis puluhan taun, Washington Heights / Inwood Y wis ana, lan terus dadi, papan perlindungan kanggo wong-wong sing golek perlindungan, pakurmatan lan pangerten. Akeh sing mlebu lawang lan melu program wis ngalami cobaan lan kasusahan sing ora bisa dibayangake. Kanggo sawetara, sing bakal dadi bagean saka pameran iki, salah sawijining medeni kaya ngono wis dingerteni dening donya kanthi mung "Holocaust" – rajapati sistematis nem yuta wong Yahudi ing Eropa.
Kita ing Y kelingan jaman biyen, ngajeni wong-wong sing urip lan tilar donya nalika semana, lan njaga bebener kanggo generasi mbesuk. Kanggo kepentingan awake dhewe lan anak-anak, kita kudu nyritakake crita-crita saka wong-wong sing wis ngalami ala saka perang. Ana piwulang sing kudu dijupuk kanggo mbesuk. Wawancara kasebut didokumentasikake dening Halley Goldberg, supervisor program "Mitra Ngrawat". Program penting iki bisa ditindakake kanthi hibah saka Federasi UJA-New York, dirancang kanggo nambah hubungan karo sinagog ing Washington Heights lan Inwood. “
Pameran seni gabungan kita nampilake potret lan wawancara karo para korban slamet ing Holocaust, Hana Eisner, Charlie lan Lilli Friedman, Mutiara Rosenzveig, Fredy Seidel lan Ruth Wertheimer, kabeh kalebu anggota Khemah Ibrani, jemaah Yahudi manawa akeh wong-wong Yahudi Jerman sing ngungsi saka Nazi lan cukup beruntung teka ing Amerika, gabung ing pungkasan taun 1930an. Kajaba iku, kita uga bakal ngurmati wong sing slamet Holocaust, Gizelle Schwartz Bulow- ibu seniman kita Peter Bulow lan slamet WWII Yan Neznanskiy - bapak Kepala Program Officer Y, Victoria Neznansky.
Pelayanan Sabat khusus, karo speaker, kanggo ngelingi Ulang taun Kristallnacht sing kaping 75 (Wengi Kaca Patah) ndhisiki mbukak pameran Gold Gallery / Y:Layanan diwiwiti kanthi cepet jam 7:30 sore. Kabeh dijaluk rawuh.
Kanggo mbukak jam galeri utawa kanggo informasi luwih lengkap, hubungi sinagog ing212-568-8304 utawa ndelenghttp://www.hebrewtabernacle.orgPratelan Artis: Yael Ben-Sionwww.yaelbenzion.comYael Ben-Zion lair ing Minneapolis, MN lan tuwuh ing Israel. Dheweke lulusan Program Studi Umum Fotografi Internasional. Ben-Sion minangka panampa macem-macem dana lan penghargaan, paling anyar saka Puffin Foundation lan saka NoMAA, lan kerjane wis dipamerake ing Amerika Serikat lan ing Eropa. Dheweke wis nerbitake rong monografi karyane. Dheweke urip ing Washington Heights karo bojone, lan putra kembare.
Pratelan Artis: Peter Bulow: www.peterbulow.com
Ibuku minangka bocah, wis ndhelik nalika Holocaust. Sajrone taun, pengalamane, utawa sing dakkarepake yaiku pengalaman dheweke, wis pengaruhe gedhe kanggo kula. Pengaruh iki dibayangke ing pribadi lan seni seni. Aku lair ing India, urip dadi bocah cilik ing Berlin lan emigrasi menyang AS karo wong tuwaku nalika umure 8. Aku duwe Master ing Seni Rupa ing patung. Aku uga sing nampa hibah sing bakal ngidini aku nggawe sawetara gangsa tembaga sing slamet saka Holocaust. Tulung dakkandhani manawa sampeyan kasengsem dadi bagian saka proyek iki.
Pratelan Artis :Roj Rodriguez: www.kalamantri.com
Awakku sing kerja nggambarake perjalananku saka Houston, TX - ing kana aku lair lan gedhe - menyang New York - ing endi, kena etnis, keragaman budaya lan sosial ekonomi lan pandangan khas para imigran– Aku nemokake rasa hormat kanggo budaya kabeh wong. Aku wis magang karo fotografer mapan, kesah jagad iki akeh lan kolaborasi karo akeh profesional ndhuwur. Wiwit wulan Januari, 2006, karir minangka fotografer independen wis dadi proses njupuk proyek fotografi pribadi sing muncul saka pangerten dhewe babagan cara nuduhake jagad lan nggunakake kreativitas kanthi sakabehe.
