The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

Grace Bennett

Holocaust Survivor Helga Luden Relates her Story of Escape, Rescue and Survival

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“I always listened to my mother.”

Helga Luden Speaking at an International Holocaust Remembrance Day Event Sponsored by the Horace Greeley High School Club ENOUGH and the Town of New Castle Holocaust and Human Rights Committee 

New Castle Holocaust and Human Rights Committee Co-chairs Stacey Saiontz (right) and Alexandra Rosenberg with Helga Luden and members of ENOUGH, the student group at Greeley. Inside Press photo.

January 27, 2023–In a panel on the stage at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center yesterday eve, Helga Schmitz-Fernich Luden–holding multiple documents and pictures to help relay details–shared her harrowing but ultimately triumphant and inspiring story of herself as a very young girl (she was born in 1934) surviving the Nazi invasion. Her family was the only Jewish family in Ulmen (a town in the Rhineland region of Germany).

Despite her family’s rich history as residents of the town, she and her mom after being separated from her father–who was sent to a slave labor camp–were sent to the Gurs transit camp in the Basque region of southwestern France.* There, her mom, growing increasingly aware of the Nazi plans, each day actively coached her young daughter to prepare for a daring escape–instructing her ‘to play dumb’ with her German-sounding name, and also promising to join her.

While of course terrified at the prospect, Helga also offered, “I always listened to my mother.”

As the dangers escalated, her mother finally sent her daughter on her way with money hidden in her clothing too (the money had been saved in the wires of her mom’s girdle!). This part of the journey was painful to contemplate, an exceptionally young Jewish girl traveling alone in the rolling hills of Europe, in dire danger. She described being found passed out in a field but, miraculously enough, revived by a group of French Jewish partisans who helped her find refuge first in a convent and later in an orphanage.

Helga Luden, Members of the Greeley Club ENOUGH with New Castle Town Supervisor Lisa Katz (lower left) and (lower right) with New Castle Holocaust and Human Rights Committee co-chairs Stacey Saiontz (left) and Alexandra Rosenberg, Helga Luden, and state Senator Peter Harckham. Inside Press photos

True to her word, her mother (who eventually escaped Gurs too) and she were reunited there! From another safe haven in Marseilles, Helga and her mom boarded the famous ship, the Serpa Pinta, which was heading to North Africa–it held 750 Jewish men and women in its hull in secret and these refugees were rarely allowed to come on board, Helga explained.

Helga related another miracle as she and her mom found her father among the refugees too, having survived and escaped from a slave labor camp. He was emaciated but alive. A challenging (to say the least) journey, the ship would span two continents over six weeks as they were turned away from different countries for refuge, including sadly, from the New York Harbor in the United States.

Eventually, the ship was accepted in the Dominican Republic, its government saving its Jewish refugees, after 100 or more of whom had already perished from typhoid and other life threatening conditions (funerals were held daily on the ship, Helga related, through tears). Their journey to freedom began in earnest as they settled into farm life in the seacoast town of Sousa.*

In 1946*, the family, which now included a young sister to Helga, was finally allowed to emigrate to the United States, bringing the family to the melting pot neighborhoods of Inwood and later, the Lower East Side of Manhattan–where Helga also related a touching and funny story of how she met her ‘beshert’ and came to have three children, 12 grandchildren and four great grandchildren. Throughout her presentation, Helga communicated gratitude for the incredible strokes of luck that aided her family’s survival.

The Town of New Castle Holocaust and Human Rights  Committee and the students of Horace Greeley High School’s ENOUGH club made this inspiring presentation possible. Helga’s story was relayed after remarks from students of ENOUGH,  from New Castle Town Supervisor Lisa Katz, and from state Senator Peter Harckham.

*Additional facts about Helga’s story are from the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center, www.hhrecny.org  Helga is member of the Center’s Survivor Speaker’s Bureau.

 

Four Winters Shines a Light on the Bravery of World War II Survivors Among the 25,000 Jewish Partisans

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Can you imagine climbing through an unlikely opening and hurling yourself off a speeding train (while your beloved family members huddle together, terrified and exhausted) to take your chances at surviving so that you can escape arrival of almost certain murder at the death factory, Treblinka?

Or of attempting to convince others to take that chance with you? So that you can both LIVE and one day tell the story? To tell what happened–a reason to live that Holocaust survivors collectively have shared in many documentaries.

To jumping anyway when others would not or could not?

In Julie Mintz’s riveting and inspiring documentary Four Winters, we learn of such unimaginable circumstances and also mind bogglingly courageous acts of Jewish resistance through the testimony of eight  survivors who were members of the estimated 25,000 Jewish Partisans in the forests of World War II Poland, Lithuania, Belarus and the Ukraine. In Mintz’s discussion following the movie with Bruni Burres, the curator of the Jacob Burns Film Center Jewish Film Festival, we learn that only one of the survivors Mintz worked with to tell their stories and produce this film as authentically as possible, is still with us today for the film’s release. A takeaway reminder to me that the survivors are leaving us. A reminder that so are their stories. So we must honor them. And this film, honors them immensely.

Documentarian Julie Mintz discussing Four Winters with Bruni Burres, curator for the Burns Center Jewish Film Festival.

If I may go on. I also don’t consider these spoilers as you MUST see this wonderful documentary to understand its edge of your seat quality, and my own words aside, you MUST hear the stories from the survivors themselves to truly digest the Jewish Partisans story and the Four Winters theme of perseverance.

Can you imagine walking for miles in a weakened state in an expansive, eerie forest in the cold and the snow, with only the glowing eyes of wolves in the distance to guide you, without survival gear or survival skills per se, at different junctures being hunted down like animals for slaughter by the sick Nazi regime and its unholy web of spies and collaborators?

It was a story I was startled and almost embarrassed to have never heard before, or have heard about in snips and pieces, as more folklore. The survivor witnesses in Four Winters weave a tapestry of this most remarkable aspect of Holocaust survival, of Jewish survival. Julie Mintz has lovingly, painstakingly helped each of these dear souls revisit and recall details of those horrific times, so that the story, each story, the collective story, can be released into the world, and so that these survivors can be celebrated and embraced not for what they survived, but for their courage, for the lives they helped save, for whatever evil they conquered or thwarted too against all odds.

None of us really could imagine, and no doubt the survivors who describe their experiences never could have either preceding the horrific genocide that ensued. Or how they eventually banded together in groups and underground, camouflaged bunkers to form true fighting units sabotaging and killing Nazis at assorted opportunities, and surviving against all odds over four endless, brutal winters, often starving, often not knowing what day it was, or what the future held. Early in the film: footage of their happy and productive lives, vacationing in pre-Nazi invasion Poland.

As we approach International Holocaust Remembrance Day tomorrow, I am grateful I had the opportunity to watch the pre-screening of Four Winters yesterday. As the subject matter never stops hitting too close to home (I am a child of Holocaust survivors; most of my family perished), the usual trepidation I feel watching the footage of crimes perpetrated against humanity by the Nazis never goes away. But this story was incredibly uplifting in that we much more rarely hear about the resistance efforts to the Nazi evil. The Jewish partisans collaborated with Polish and Russian partisan units in the forests too. I am eternally grateful to every astoundingly brave and moral person of every religion and race who courageously resisted and fought the seemingly endless atrocities to save innocent lives at grave risk to their own. I’m in awe of the courage it took to save themselves. I’m eternally heartened to learn and proud to know that included a sizeable number of Jewish persons, too.

 

Send Me A Sign

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Judging time. PHOTO BY DONNA MUELLER

The privilege of judging a community’s apple pies evokes a deep sense of responsibility! Over 30 were entered into the annual contest at the Pleasantville Farmer’s Market, a town treasure and foodie destination in the county. As one of 11 judges (I joined a good number with ‘real’ culinary experience), I ditched my feelings of inadequacy, drew all my still functioning senses into sharp focus, so that I too could weigh in on which pies stood out the most, both in terms of appearance, basic baking features, and the all-important, TASTE. More info on the winners in the picture captions but the whole community ‘won’ that day for sure, both the contestants and all who purchased and enjoyed apple pie slices for the fundraiser. I was grateful as well to Pleasantville Farmer’s Market Chairman Peter Rogovin for a private tour of the Market, prior to the contest, and look forward to sharing more of what I learned in a future edition.

Pleasantville Farmers Market #ApplePieContest Winners! Best Double Crust pie award to (on right) Jules Putterman from Millwood, NY. Best Single Crust (tart, crumb or crisp) award to Jessica Schlesinger from Norwalk Ct. Junior Chef award to Violet Coppola from Pleasantville! The Friends and Family (board members, interns, employees and their immediate family) pie award went to Eli Neilson-Papish, Pleasantville Farmers Market Intern, also from Pleasantville.  Inside Press Photo

A week earlier, I covered, for a second time, Pleasantville’s now annual ‘Block Party,’ a fun and festive occasion which brought the whole community together for a day of terrific entertainment, tasty treats, a car show, raffles, and more, ever more smiles, that is.

Speaking of smiles… as we headed into press, Briarcliff Manor was also busy planning to hold its first ever Portraits in the Park event by Ann Charles Photography–including a November 20th session in the brilliant fall backdrop near the Low Library, which promised a perfect solution for creating keeper holiday cards and momentos.

Meanwhile, with deadlines looming, I asked God to “Send me a Sign,” so that I could still carve out the time I needed to produce my issues. ‘She’ answered! Because what I got were also multiple ones from Irene Unger who produced the story and gathered pictures about Briarcliff’s eclectic, community bonding and healing collection of signs regularly shared by the Briarcliff Congregational Church and ‘The Sign Lady’ there, Joan Austin.

With PFM Chairman Peter Rogovin
PHOTO BY DONNA MUELLER

Our holiday spotlights this year is a strong nod to anyone struggling this holiday season and to the people who have your back. To that end, we have included in depth features on the Hoarce Greeley Scholarship Fund, 914Cares, Hope’s Door and even the battle to prevent Homelessness in Westchester–in some rare good news, that’s a battle the County, partnering with Westhab, says is being won. We are also grateful to the Boys & Girls Club of Northern Westchester for their work, and have helped sponsor their support of our holiday editions, too.

Please note that we won’t be publishing print again until editions mailing in late February when we move to a quarterly schedule.

In the meantime, wishing you and yours a peaceful, love-filled holiday season.

A Briarcliff Manor first time event–Portraits in the Park–has added a session at Low Library on November 20.
ANNCHARLESPHOTO.COM/NOW-BOOKING
Peter Rogovin, PFM’s chairperson instructing 11 judges before the contest evaluating and tasting 31 pies began!  Inside Press Photo

Inside 914Cares: A Lesson in “Actionable Generosity”

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Inside Press Photos

A tour through the 914Cares facility feels a bit like landing on a cloud where a group of earth angels are busy creating little miracles daily within a dizzying number of rooms with clearly marked shelves. Sooo many shelves. Sooo many helping hands. Santa’s elves have nothin’ on this crew!

This celebrated, and nearly all volunteer effort, a ‘basic essentials distribution center’, as its founder and CEO Jessica Reinmann proudly describes 914Cares, “distributes everything other than food.” 914Cares works closely with over 80 Westchester County programs to distribute items for them regularly, but as this not for profit has gradually evolved (it began in 2014), it also responds to calls from many different organizations and individuals seeking assistance for underserved populations.

“We have become known as the organization in the county that can get things to where they need to be immediately!” related Jessica, who together with with Marjorie Troob, Program Manager and Lisa Horten, Director of Communications and Development, took time out to acquaint the Inside Press with 914Cares.

Sometimes, the diversity of the calls can surprise even them. One time, for example, 914Cares received a phone call from a film crew who had to have their employees’ quarantine. “They had microwaves, coffee makers, and more…so we just got those items out really quickly!… We figured that we have these distribution possibilities…let’s put it all together!”

And to ‘put it all together’ 914Cares filled that void in a most monumental, year-round effort! Clothing essentials is probably still the ‘biggest’ item continuously sorted by volunteers. For a sense of the effort, consider that 914Cares distributes around 3,500 bags of clothing every year in its work with some 80 to 90 community partners each month. These partners arrive from every corner of the County to deliver the bags to the populations they serve.

914Cares volunteers in the meantime work to tailor the bags as much as possible to satisfy a child’s distinct wishes and needs. “Every bag is packed for the individual child. When an order comes in, they can say: “This is a Yankees fan” and the volunteers will look for Yankees items. Or we can have a girl that, let’s say hates pink, so we will make sure to not put in pink!”

Each bag contains a week’s worth of clothing. They also contain books and a ‘hygiene bag.’ Much thought goes into those too. “We have different hygiene bags for different age groups, because say, for example, ‘under 4s’ can’t have fluoride. “We are very thoughtful about what types of products we put in the bag….

Avi’s Library

The clothing is also ultimately something you would be happy for your own child to wear. “We do not give away anything with a specific school emblem or holiday images on it, anything with rips, stains holes, are rejected. We get shirts that will say “Little Brother” and we can’t give that to a child because we don’t know their situation.”

“A lot of our partners say we focus on dignity of the recipient.”

That level of dignity extends to books recipients find in the donated bags as well, as 914Cares packs and/or delivers about 50,000 books a year.” The 914Cares experienced librarian Miriam Minor is also a volunteer who trains library volunteers and manages ‘Avi’s Library,’ a children’s library housed inside 914Cares, too.

Books are packaged with clothing bags, by request of any organization: For example, 914Cares recently packed almost 8,000 books last year on behalf of the Ossining School District–after receiving their request for only 20! That effort led to each child receiving four books for their summer reading.

Most items are individual donations, but 914Cares also has evolving relationships with different clothing companies to receive overstock items, etc. They recently solidified “a strong relationship with Carters” as one example These relationships help enormously with meeting the greatest challenge in sorting the bags: making sure there are always enough sizes, and not an overabundance of any one size or too many items specific to one gender.

All Seasons Caring

The tour extended into a ‘seasonal’ area where 914Cares volunteers create bags whether it’s for back to school or for summer camp. “We fill about 200 camp bags a year, half sleep-away and half day,” said Jessica. “A lot of kids get scholarships to camp but they can’t go because they require a sleeping bag and certain sheets. The parents can’t afford that, so we have tried to play that role in the community, and make sure every kid that gets an opportunity to go to camps gets to. We separate the clothes between boys and girls. Then by size, then by item.”

It’s impressive but if it all also sounds daunting (it did to me!), my tour guides insist that it is all eminently doable thanks to a concept 914Cares promotes called “actionable generosity” that builds empathy along with passion and commitment among volunteers spanning different age groups. While most volunteers are parents with kids in school (they open daily at 10 a.m.), volunteers also include retired people and “tons of kids” after school.

Jessica encourages volunteers of every age to be ‘hands on’ to really learn what it means to not have clothes. She will especially tell kids to please NOT wear nice clothes “because you are going to work, pack diapers, hygiene supplies. There’s sweating and working here!”

These dedicated efforts ultimately help meet the profound needs of the most diverse families–from refugees to people coming out of the foster care system to fire victims and to those impacted by the Covid 19 pandemic.

Ever changing wish lists depend on the season or what supplies are on hand. “Our goal for every bag is to get a pair of sneakers which we don’t always meet, but it is our goal. Our goal for every winter bag is also a pair of boots,” she explained pointing out the long coat rack for the winter bags receiving a coat, a hat, and gloves. All socks and underwear are brand new. “As you can see our shoe bins depends on what we get, and what gets filled up.”

Her partner in passion for caring is Marjorie Troob, Program Manager, who manages the 914Cares Baby Bank. “It is a program which helps the County’s neediest babies–we work with six or seven organizations, along with high schools who contact us for help for teen parents. “For six months straight, each baby receives a month’s worth of diapers and wipes, clothing with updated sizing, and also, miraculously enough, essentials like car seats, strollers, bathtubs, portable high chairs, diaper cream, shampoo, bottle bibs, blankets, swaddles, diaper bags, and more.

Why Volunteer?

To explain the volunteer mindset, Lisa Horten, Director of Communications and Development, noted: “For me, I like knowing I’m helping someone less fortunate and who has not had the experiences my kids have had. That gives me great pleasure. It’s even selfish for me.”

Jessica explained further: “I spent years in the private sector making rich people richer, and I just couldn’t do it anymore. We get all these quotes from social workers about how the bags have literally changed their lives. There’s no place I would rather be.”

Added Marjorie: “We get to do good every single day, I love being here, we have fun and yet we do good at the same time. Everyone is genuinely caring at the same time.”

Lisa offered that it’s also an opportunity to educate people. “Last night I was at a meeting in Pelham and people don’t realize that poverty is here in Westchester. I didn’t realize before I got here, either. It’s a quieter type of poverty than in Manhattan where you can see homeless people walking on the street.”

The positive feedback from recipients is gratifying too. “Last year, two sisters who got dresses had never had dresses in their lives!… They were holding hands in a picture, and you have never seen a bigger smile on kids.”

Ever growing, 914Cares is also on the move to a larger (still undisclosed) space from their current White Plains location. Individual donations are especially sought.

“Financial donations are amazing especially in the diaper and ‘period world’, said Jessica. “But we also encourage people to do diaper and clothing drives! We just got a call from Seven Bridges Middle School in Chappaqua, where they are going to do a sneaker drive for us,” she added. “All these things are helpful!”

Please visit 914cares.org

Inside Press Intern Adrianna Cmiel-Walsh assisted in the preparation of this article.

Enjoying The Skin of Our Teeth, Living Well After

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Nyack, NY–Thornton Wilder’s fantastical tale arrives in the nick of time, yes, by The Skin of Our Teeth. If the wonderful, whimsical characters of The Skin of Our Teeth can survive calamities ranging from infidelity and parent/child strife to the, um, Ice Age (yes, the ICE AGE), then people, we’ve got ‘all this’ too. Under a brilliant blue sky–the bright sun kept autumn coolness at bay–so did sipping the complimentary hot apple cider, while watching the animated cast in this delightful and life affirming production at the lovely and lush Marydell Faith and Life Center. Seriously. Persevere, and don’t miss the next Live Arts in Nyack production, either, and discover Nyack before and after the productions. 

Life mirrored art strangely post show, too!  I returned to my car which was, heavens to Betsy, having trouble starting up. Had I left my lights on? A sense of panic kicked in, as I was meeting a new friend in town in FIVE minutes. I took a deep breath, and started it, though received blinking messages to check engine and brakes. But it was running, and no way I wasn’t going to town (with a mental note to self to take the car to the shop tomorrow!)  So, by the Skin of my Own Teeth, I drove to Main Street, for more life affirming reminders, via a stroll through the last hour of a colorful Nyack Street fair, and soon after, over a delicious dinner and drinks at one of Nyack’s hot spots, the Hudson House. – Grace Bennett