Kasabay ng aming “Mga Kasosyo sa Pag-aalaga” programang pinondohan ng UJA-Federation of New York, itatampok ng Y ang mga panayam mula sa anim na lokal na nakaligtas upang mas maunawaan ang kuwento ng bawat indibidwal. Ang mga panayam na ito ay ipapakita sa gallery ng Hebrew Tabernacle “Nakakaranas ng Panahon ng Digmaan at Higit pa: Mga Larawan ng Spirited Holocaust Survivors”. Ang gallery ay magbubukas sa Biyernes ika-8 ng Nobyembre.
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 panayam na ito ay isinagawa ni Halley Goldberg ng Y’s Partners in Caring initiative at kabilang sa YM&YWHA ng Washington Heights at Inwood. Ang paggamit ng materyal na ito nang walang nakasulat na pahintulot mula sa Y at ng kinakapanayam ay mahigpit na ipinagbabawal. Alamin ang higit pa tungkol sa programang Partners in Caring dito: http://ywashhts.org/partners-caring-0
Hebrew Tabernacle's Armin at Estelle Gold Wing Gallerysa ipinagmamalaking pakikipagtulungan saang YM&YWHA ng Washington Heights at Inwoodiniimbitahan ka sa amingNobyembre/Disyembre, 2013 eksibit“Nakakaranas ng Panahon ng Digmaan at Higit pa: Mga Larawan ng Spirited Holocaust Survivors” may mga litrato at eskultura ni: YAEL BEN-ZION, PETER BULOW at ROJ RODRIGUEZ. Kasabay ng isang espesyal na Serbisyo sa memoryang75ika Anibersaryo ng Kristallnacht -ang Gabi ng Basag na SalaminMga Serbisyo at Pagbubukas ng Pagtanggap ng Artist, Biyernes, ika-8 ng Nobyembre, 2013 7:30 p.m.
Isang pahayag mula sa Y : ” Sa loob ng maraming dekada ang Washington Heights/Inwood Y ay naging, at patuloy na, isang kanlungan para sa mga naghahanap ng kanlungan, paggalang at pag-unawa. Maraming pumapasok sa ating mga pintuan at nakikibahagi sa ating mga programa ay nabuhay sa mga pagsubok at paghihirap na hindi natin maisip.. Para sa ilang, sino ang magiging bahagi ng eksibit na ito, ang isang kakila-kilabot na ito ay nakilala sa mundo bilang "The Holocaust" – ang sistematikong pagpatay sa anim na milyong Hudyo ng Europa.
Naaalala namin sa Y ang nakaraan, parangalan ang mga nabuhay at namatay noong panahong iyon, at pangalagaan ang katotohanan para sa mga susunod na henerasyon. Para sa kapakanan ng ating sarili at ng ating mga anak, dapat nating ipasa ang mga kwento ng mga nakaranas ng kasamaan ng digmaan. May mga aral na mapupulot para sa kinabukasan. Ang mga panayam ay dokumentado ni Halley Goldberg, isang superbisor ng programang "Mga Kasosyo sa Pagmamalasakit".. Ang mahalagang programang ito ay naging posible sa pamamagitan ng isang mapagbigay na gawad mula sa UJA-Federation ng New York, idinisenyo upang mapahusay ang mga relasyon sa mga sinagoga sa Washington Heights at Inwood. “
Nagtatampok ang aming pinagsamang art exhibit ng mga portrait at panayam ng mga nakaligtas sa Holocaust, Hannah Eisner, Sina Charlie at Lilli Friedman, Pearl Rosenzveig, Fredy Seidel at Ruth Wertheimer, lahat sila ay miyembro ng The Hebrew Tabernacle, isang Jewish congregation na maraming German Jews na tumakas sa mga Nazi at maswerteng nakarating sa America, sumali noong huling bahagi ng 1930's. Bilang karagdagan, pararangalan din natin ang nakaligtas sa Holocaust na si Gizelle Schwartz Bulow- ina ng aming artist na si Peter Bulow at nakaligtas sa WWII na si Yan Neznanskiy – ama ng Chief Program Officer ng Y, Victoria Neznansky.
Isang espesyal na Serbisyo ng Sabbath, may mga speaker, bilang pag-alaala sa ika-75 Anibersaryo ng Kristallnacht (ang Gabi ng Basag na Salamin) nauna sa pagbubukas ng Gold Gallery/Y exhibit:Magsisimula kaagad ang mga serbisyo sa 7:30 pm. Inaanyayahan ang lahat na dumalo.
Para sa mga oras ng pagbubukas ng gallery o para sa karagdagang impormasyon mangyaring tawagan ang sinagoga sa212-568-8304 o tingnanhttp://www.hebrewtabernacle.orgPahayag ng Artist: Yael Ben-Zionwww.yaelbenzion.comSi Yael Ben-Zion ay ipinanganak sa Minneapolis, MN at lumaki sa Israel. Siya ay nagtapos ng International Center of Photography's General Studies Program. Ang Ben-Zion ay ang tatanggap ng iba't ibang mga gawad at parangal, pinakabagong mula sa Puffin Foundation at mula sa NoMAA, at ang kanyang gawa ay ipinakita sa Estados Unidos at sa Europa. Nag-publish siya ng dalawang monographs ng kanyang trabaho. Nakatira siya sa Washington Heights kasama ang kanyang asawa, at ang kambal nilang lalaki.
Pahayag ng Artist: Peter Bulow: www.peterbulow.com
Ang aking ina bilang isang bata, ay nagtatago noong Holocaust. Sa paglipas ng mga taon, kanyang karanasan, o kung ano ang naisip kong naging karanasan niya, ay nagkaroon ng malaking impluwensya sa akin. Ang impluwensyang ito ay makikita sa aking personal at sa aking artistikong buhay. Ipinanganak ako sa India, nanirahan bilang isang bata sa Berlin at lumipat sa US kasama ang aking mga magulang sa edad 8. Mayroon akong Masters in Fine Arts sa sculpture. Tatanggap din ako ng grant na magbibigay-daan sa akin na gumawa ng limitadong bilang ng mga bronze bust ng mga nakaligtas sa Holocaust. Mangyaring ipaalam sa akin kung interesado kang maging bahagi ng proyektong ito.
Pahayag ng Artist :Roj Rodriguez: www.rojrodriguez.com
Ang aking katawan ng trabaho ay sumasalamin sa aking paglalakbay mula sa Houston, TX - kung saan ako ipinanganak at lumaki - sa New York - kung saan, nakalantad sa etniko nito, pagkakaiba-iba ng kultura at socioeconomic at ang natatanging pananaw nito sa mga imigrante– Nakakita ako ng panibagong paggalang sa kultura ng lahat. Nag-aprentice ako sa mga mahusay na photographer, naglakbay nang husto sa mundo at nakipagtulungan sa maraming nangungunang propesyonal sa larangan. Mula noong Enero, 2006, ang aking karera bilang isang independiyenteng photographer ay naging isang proseso ng pagkuha ng mga personal na proyekto sa pagkuha ng litrato na lumabas mula sa sarili kong pag-unawa sa paraan ng pagbabahagi natin sa mundo at paggamit ng ating pagkamalikhain sa kabuuan.
