Bizimle birlikte “Bakım Ortakları” UJA-New York Federasyonu tarafından finanse edilen program, Y, her bireyin hikayesini daha iyi anlamak için hayatta kalan altı yerel kişiyle yapılan röportajlara yer verecek. Bu röportajlar İbranice Tabernacle galerisinde sergilenecek “Savaş Zamanını ve Ötesini Deneyimlemek: Holokost'tan sağ kurtulanların coşkulu portreleri”. Galeri 8 Kasım Cuma günü açılacak.
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.
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, ve 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.
Bu röportaj Y's Partners in Caring girişiminden Halley Goldberg tarafından gerçekleştirilmiştir ve YM'ye aittir.&Washington Heights ve Inwood YWHA. Bu materyalin hem Y'nin hem de görüşülen kişinin yazılı izni olmadan kullanılması kesinlikle yasaktır.. Partners in Caring programı hakkında daha fazla bilgiyi burada bulabilirsiniz: http://ywashhts.org/partners-caring-0
İbrani Tapınağı Armin ve Estelle Altın Kanat Galerisiile gururlu bir ortaklık içindeYM&Washington Heights ve Inwood YWHAsizi aramıza davet ediyorKasım Aralık, 2013 Sergilemek“Savaş Zamanını ve Ötesini Deneyimlemek: Holokost'tan sağ kurtulanların coşkulu portreleri” fotoğraf ve heykellerle: YAEL BEN ZION, PETER BULOW ve ROJ RODRIGUEZ. Bellekteki özel bir Hizmetle birliktearasında75Kristallnacht'ın Yıldönümü - Kırık Camlar GecesiHizmetler ve Sanatçı Açılış Resepsiyonu, Cuma, 8 Kasım, 2013 7:30 öğleden sonra.
Y'den açıklama : ” Onlarca yıldır Washington Heights/Inwood Y, ve olmaya devam ediyor, sığınmak isteyenlerin cenneti, saygı ve anlayış. Kapımıza giren, programlarımıza katılan pek çok kişi, hayal bile edemeyeceğimiz zorluklar ve sıkıntılar yaşadı.. Bazı, bu serginin bir parçası kim olacak, Böyle bir korku dünya çapında sadece “Holokost” olarak bilinmeye başlandı. – altı milyon Avrupalı Yahudinin sistematik öldürülmesi.
Biz Y'de geçmişi hatırlıyoruz, o dönemde yaşayan ve ölenleri onurlandırın, ve gelecek nesiller için gerçeği koruyun. Kendimiz ve çocuklarımız için, savaşın kötülüklerini deneyimleyenlerin hikayelerini aktarmalıyız. Geleceğe dair çıkarılacak dersler var. Röportajlar Halley Goldberg tarafından belgelenmiştir., “Bakım Ortakları” program sorumlusu. Bu hayati program, UJA-New York Federasyonu'nun cömert bağışı sayesinde mümkün oldu, Washington Heights ve Inwood'daki sinagoglarla ilişkileri geliştirmek için tasarlandı. “
Ortak sanat sergimizde Holokost'tan sağ kurtulanların portreleri ve röportajları yer alıyor, Hannah Eisner, Charlie ve Lilli Friedman, İnci Rosenzveig, Fredy Seidel ve Ruth Wertheimer, bunların hepsi İbrani Tapınağı'nın üyeleridir, Nazilerden kaçan ve Amerika'ya gelecek kadar şanslı olan birçok Alman Yahudisinin yaşadığı bir Yahudi cemaati, 1930'ların sonunda katıldı. Ayrıca Holokost'tan sağ kurtulan Gizelle Schwartz Bulow'u da onurlandıracağız.- Sanatçımız Peter Bulow'un annesi ve İkinci Dünya Savaşı'ndan sağ kurtulan Yan Neznanskiy – Y'nin Baş Program Sorumlusunun babası, Victoria Neznansky.
Özel bir Şabat Hizmeti, hoparlörlerle, Kristallnacht'ın 75. Yıldönümü anısına (Kırık Camlar Gecesi) Altın Galeri/Y sergisinin açılışından önce:Hizmetler saat 7'de hemen başlıyor:30 öğleden sonra. Herkes katılmaya davetlidir.
Galerinin açık olduğu saatler veya daha fazla bilgi için lütfen şu adresten sinagogu arayın:212-568-8304 veya görhttp://www.hebrewtabernacle.orgSanatçının Açıklaması: Yael Ben Zionwww.yaelbenzion.comYael Ben-Zion Minneapolis'te doğdu, MN ve İsrail'de büyüdü. Uluslararası Fotoğraf Merkezi Genel Çalışmalar Programı mezunudur. Ben-Zion çeşitli hibe ve ödüllerin sahibidir, en son Puffin Vakfı'ndan ve NoMAA'dan, ve çalışmaları Amerika Birleşik Devletleri ve Avrupa'da sergilendi. Çalışmalarının iki monografisini yayınladı. Kocasıyla birlikte Washington Heights'ta yaşıyor, ve onların ikiz çocukları.
Sanatçının Açıklaması: Peter Bulow: www.peterbulow.com
Annem çocukken, Holokost sırasında saklanıyordu. Yıllar sonra, onun deneyimi, ya da onun deneyimi olduğunu hayal ettiğim şey, üzerimde büyük bir etkisi oldu. Bu etki hem kişisel hem de sanatsal hayatıma yansıyor. Hindistan'da doğdum, Küçük bir çocuk olarak Berlin'de yaşadım ve o yaşta ailemle birlikte ABD'ye göç ettim 8. Güzel Sanatlar heykel alanında yüksek lisansım var. Ayrıca Holokost'tan sağ kurtulanların sınırlı sayıda bronz büstlerini yapmama olanak sağlayacak bir bağışın da sahibiyim.. Bu projenin bir parçası olmakla ilgileniyorsanız lütfen bana bildirin.
Sanatçının Açıklaması :Roj Rodriguez: www.rojrodriguez.com
Çalışmalarım Houston'dan yolculuğumu yansıtıyor, Teksas – doğup büyüdüğüm yer – New York’a – nerede, etnik kimliğine maruz, kültürel ve sosyoekonomik çeşitlilik ve bunun göçmenlere bakış açısı– Herkesin kültürüne karşı yenilenmiş bir saygı buldum. Tanınmış fotoğrafçıların yanında çıraklık yaptım, Dünyayı kapsamlı bir şekilde dolaştı ve bu alandaki birçok üst düzey profesyonelle işbirliği yaptı. Ocaktan beri, 2006, Bağımsız bir fotoğrafçı olarak kariyerim, dünyayı paylaşma ve bir bütün olarak yaratıcılığımızı kullanma şeklimize dair kendi anlayışımdan ortaya çıkan kişisel fotoğraf projelerini üstlenme süreci haline geldi.
