Daffodil garden dedicated to Holocaust survivors
By Anahi Rodriguez | Manor Ink
HONORED Assemblywoman Paula Kay holds a proclamation from the state given to Holocaust survivor Marlene Wertheim during a ceremony at Agudas Achim in Livingston Manor. Anahi Rodriguez photo
Livingston Manor, NY – During the Holocaust, a period from 1941 to 1945, more than six million Jews were murdered in Europe due to the actions of the German Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler. The internment and systematic killing of those men, women and children ranks among one of history’s greatest crimes.
On May 3, Livingston Manor’s Agudas Achim Synagogue dedicated a daffodil garden, part of the Daffodil Project, a worldwide effort to memorialize the lives of the children lost in the Holocaust. “It is important that every day we try to remember the children whose futures were taken in the blink of an eye, just because they were Jews,” said Judy Siegel, Agudas Achim Synagogue’s president. The garden also was dedicated to two local residents, Marlene Wertheim and Eva Bocskar, Holocaust survivors from Hungary and Austria who eventually escaped to the United States.
The Daffodil Project aspires as well to provide support for children suffering in humanitarian crises around the world today. The synagogue holds a daffodil remembrance event every year, but this year was a special occasion with the garden dedication.
The ceremony began with a William Wordsworth poem about daffodils read by eighth grade teacher Lynn Schoneck. Camille O’Brien, from Senator Peter Oberacker’s office, presented both honorees with a framed proclamation. It stated in part, “Whereas it is incumbent upon the people of the State of New York to recognize and acknowledge those individuals and or organizations of true purpose who are dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of the appreciation of the distinctive features of their community, now, therefore, be it proclaimed that I, New York State Senator Peter Oberacker ... do hereby honor Marlene and Eva worthy of our highest respect, gratitude and esteem.”
State Assemblywoman Paula Kay personally attended the event and honored the two women. “It’s so important for all of us to be vocal about our culture, our religion, our tradition, our heritage and to speak up and be proud about our Jewish heritage and customs and traditions. And I try to do that every day,” she said.
Both honorees took a few minutes to share their stories as children escaping the horrors. Wertheim recounted Kristallnacht in Vienna, “the night of broken glass.” She was six years old in 1938 when mobs vandalized Jewish shops, homes and libraries, and set fire to whole neighborhoods as she and her grandfather walked quickly to safety.
Bocskar described how she lived in the ghetto as a child while her father was in hiding. “I was four years old when the Germans came in. They took all my family and put them into a ghetto. We had no heat where they put us. We had barely any food, but we had to share. And every single day, they were coming and taking one family away, and they were shooting them into the Danube River.”
Because of the horrors of the Holocaust, our local community comes together each year to emphasize the resilience of the survivors and impact that the Holocaust had on them, and to rededicate the community’s commitment to remembrance and hope.