ʻI he fakataha mo ʻetau “Ngaahi Hoa ʻi he Tokanga” polokalama ʻoku fakapaʻanga ʻe he UJA-fetulolo ʻo Niu ʻIoke, ʻe fakahoko ʻe he Y ha ngaahi ʻinitaviu mei ha kau hao fakalotofonua ʻe toko ono ke mahino lelei ange ʻa e talanoa ʻo e tokotaha fakafoʻituitui takitaha. ʻE fakaʻaliʻali e ngaahi ʻinitaviu ko ʻení ʻi he Tāpanekale Hepeluú “Aʻusia ha Taimi ʻo e Tau pea Fakalaka Atu Ai: Ngaahi ta ʻo e kau Siu longomoʻui”. ʻE fakaava ʻa e Gallery ʻi he ʻaho Falaite Novema 8.
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.
ʻI he 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, pea mo 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.
Naʻe fakahoko ʻa e ʻinitaviu ko ʻeni ʻe Halley Goldberg ʻo e ngaahi hoa ʻo Y ʻi he polokalama tokanga pea ʻoku kau ia ki he YM&YWHA ʻo Uasingatoni feituʻu mo e papa. ʻOku ʻikai ngofua ke fakaʻaongaʻi ʻa e naunau ko ʻeni taʻe ʻi ai ha tohi fakangofua mei he Y mo e interviewee. ʻIlo lahi ange fekauʻaki mo e ngaahi hoa ʻi he polokalama tokanga ʻi heni: http://ywashhts.org/partners-caring-0
Tāpanekale Hepeluú Armin mo Estelle kapakau koula Galleryʻi he hoa hikisia moʻa e YM&YWHA ʻo Uasingatoni feituʻu mo e papafakaafeʻi koe ki heʻetauNovema/Tisema, 2013 Fakaʻaliʻali“Aʻusia ha Taimi ʻo e Tau pea Fakalaka Atu Ai: Ngaahi ta ʻo e kau Siu longomoʻui” mo e ʻū taá mo e tā-tongitongí ʻe he: YAEL PENI-SAIONE, PITA BULOW mo ROJ RODRIGUEZ. ʻI he fakataha mo ha tokoni makehe ʻi he manatuʻo e75Taʻu th ʻo Kristallnacht-ko e po ʻo e sioʻata kuo maumauMaʻu ʻo e ngaahi tokoni mo e tokotaha ta valivali, Falaite, Nōvema, 2013 7:30 p.m.
Ko ha fakamatala mei he Y : ” Kuo laui taʻu ʻa e hoko ʻa e feituʻu Uasingatoni/papa ko Y, pea hokohoko atu ai pe, ko ha hūfangaʻanga maʻanautolu ʻoku kumi hūfangaʻangá, fakaʻapaʻapaʻí mo e mahinó. ʻOku tokolahi ha niʻihi ʻoku nau hū mai ʻi hotau ngaahi matapaá ʻo kau ʻi heʻetau ngaahi polokalamá kuo nau moʻui ʻi ha ngaahi ʻahiʻahi mo ha ngaahi faingataʻa ʻoku ʻikai ke tau lava ʻo fakakaukau atu ki ai. Ki ha niʻihi, ko hai ʻe kau ʻi he fakaʻaliʻali ko ʻení, Ko e taha ʻo e ngaahi meʻa fakalilifu pehee kuo ʻiloa ia ʻe he mamani ko e "kau Siu" – ʻa e fakapoongi pau ʻo e kau Siu ʻe toko 6 million ʻo ʻIulope.
ʻOku tau manatuʻi ʻi he Y ʻa e kuohili, fakalāngilangiʻi ʻa kinautolu naʻe moʻui mo pekia lolotonga e taimi ko iá, pea maluʻi ʻa e moʻoní ki he ngaahi toʻu tangata ʻo e kahaʻú. Koeʻuhí ko kitautolu mo ʻetau fānaú, kuo pau ke tau tukuʻau mai ʻa e ngaahi talanoa ʻo kinautolu kuo nau foua ʻa e ngaahi kovi ʻo e taú. ʻOku ʻi ai ha ngaahi lēsoni ke ako ki he kahaʻú. ʻOku fakamatala ʻa e ngaahi ʻinitaviu ʻe Halley Goldberg, ko ha supavaisa ʻo e polokalama "Hoa ngāue ʻi he Tokanga". Naʻe malava ʻa e polokalama mahuʻinga ko ʻeni ʻo fakafou ʻi ha foaki ʻofa mei he UJA-fetulolo ʻo Niu ʻIoke, fokotuʻutuʻu ke fakaleleiʻi e ngaahi va fetuʻutaki mo e ngaahi fale lotu ʻi Uasingatoni feituʻu mo e papa. “
ʻOku ʻi heʻetau fakaʻaliʻali ʻaati ha ngaahi ta mo ha ngaahi ʻinitaviu ʻo e kau Siu, ʻAna Eisner, Siale mo Lilli Friedman, Mataʻitofe Rosenzveig, Fredy Seidel mo Ruth Wertheimer, ʻa kinautolu kotoa ko e kau memipa ʻo e Tapanekale Hepeluu, ko ha fakatahaʻanga Siu naʻe hola ai ha kau Siu Siamane tokolahi mei he kau Nasi pea monuʻia feʻunga ke haʻu ki ʻAmelika, kau ʻi he konga kimui ʻo e 1930. ʻIkai ngata ai, te tau fakaʻapaʻapaʻi foki ʻa e tokotaha kumi moʻui ʻa e kau Siu Gizelle Schwartz Bulow- faʻe ʻa ʻemau tangata ta valivali ko Pita Bulow mo WWII tokotaha kumi moʻui Yan Neznanskiy – Tamai ʻa e ʻofisa pule ʻo e polokalama ʻa Y, Vikatolia Neznansky.
Ko ha Ouau Makehe ʻi he Sāpaté, mo e kau leá, ʻi he fakamanatu ʻo e taʻu 75 ʻo Kristallnacht (Ko e Po ʻo e Sioʻata Maumau) muʻomuʻa ʻi hono fakaava ʻo e fakaʻaliʻali koula Gallery/Y:Kamata leva ʻa e ngaahi tokoni ʻi he 7:30 pm. ʻOku fakaafeʻi ʻa e tokotaha kotoa pē ke kau mai.
Ki he ngaahi houa ʻoku ava ai pe ki ha fakamatala lahi ange kataki ʻo telefoni ki he fale lotu ʻi he212-568-8304 pe vakaihttp:://www.hebrewtabernacle.orgFakamatala ʻa e tokotaha ta valivali: Yael Peni-Saionewww.yaelbenzion.comNaʻe faʻeleʻi ʻa Yael Peni-Saione ʻi Miniʻapolosi, MN pea ohi hake ʻi ʻIsileli. Kuo ne ʻosi mei he Senita fakavahaʻapuleʻanga ʻo e polokalama ako fakalukufua ʻa e faitaa. ʻOku maʻu ʻe Peni-Saione ʻa e ngaahi foaki mo e ngaahi pale kehekehe, kimui ni mai mei he fakavaʻe Puffin pea mei NoMAA, pea kuo fakaʻaliʻali ʻene ngaue ʻi he ʻIunaiteti Siteiti pea ʻi ʻIulope. Kuo ne pulusi ha monographs ʻe ua ʻo ʻene ngaue. ʻOku ne nofo ʻi Uasingatoni feituʻu mo hono husepaniti, mo ʻena ongo tamaiki tangata mahanga.
Fakamatala ʻa e tokotaha ta valivali: Pita Bulow: www.peterbulow.com
Ko ʻeku faʻee ʻi heʻene kei siʻi, Naʻe toitoi lolotonga e kau Siu. ʻI he fakalau atu ʻa e ngaahi taʻu, meʻa naʻá ne aʻ, pe ko e meʻa ne u fakakaukau ki ai ko e meʻa naʻa ne aʻusia, kuo ne maʻu ha ivi takiekina lahi kiate au. ʻOku hasino ʻa e ivi takiekina ko ʻeni ʻi heʻeku moʻui fakatautaha pea ʻi heʻeku moʻui fakaʻati. Naʻe fāʻeleʻi au ʻi ʻInitia, nofo kei siʻi ʻi Pealini pea hiki ki he US mo ʻeku ongomatuʻa ʻi hono taʻu 8. ʻOku ʻi ai hoku kau pule ʻi he ngaahi ʻaati lelei ʻi he ta-tongitongi. Ko au foki ʻoku ou maʻu ha foaki te ne fakaʻata au ke u ʻai ha ngaahi busts polonise ʻo e kau Siu naʻe hao moʻui. Kataki ʻo fakaha mai pe ʻoku ke fie kau ki he ngaue ni.
Fakamatala ʻa e tokotaha ta valivali :Roj Lotilikesi: www.rojrodriguez.com
ʻOku ha mei hoku sino ʻo e ngaue ʻa ʻeku fononga mei Hiusitoni, TX – feituʻu naʻe faʻeleʻi mo ohi hake ai au – ki Niu ʻIoke – ʻa ia, fakaʻaliʻali ki hono fakamatakali, kehekehe fakafonua mo fakasosiale pea mo hono vakai makehe ki he kau hikifonua– Ne u maʻu ha fakaʻapaʻapa foʻou ki he anga fakafonua ʻa e tokotaha kotoa pe. Kuo u akoako mo ha kau photographers kuo fokotuʻu lelei, fononga lahi ʻi he mamani pea collaborated mo ha kau palofesinale tuʻukimuʻa tokolahi ʻi he malaʻe. Talu mei Sanuali, 2006, kuo hoko ʻeku ngaue maʻuʻanga moʻui ko ha tokotaha faita tauʻataina ko ha founga ke fakahoko ai ha ngaahi ngaue faita fakatautaha ʻoku maʻu mei he mahino kiate au ʻa e founga ʻoku tau vahevahe ai ʻa e mamani mo fakaʻaongaʻi ʻetau mohu founga.
