Holocaust freight car installed at museum
BY GABE HERMAN
A German World War II-era
freight car was installed on
March 31 just outside the Museum
of Jewish Heritage in Battery
Park, ahead of the museum’s upcoming
exhibition on Auschwitz.
The train car is one of 120,000
that were built between 1910 and
1927 and used by the Deutsche
Reichsbahn, or German National
Railway. They were used
to transport goods, livestock
and foodstuffs.
During the Second World
War, Nazis used the freight cars
to deport people in occupied Europe
to concentration camps.
The train car is part of the traveling
exhibition “Auschwitz. Not long
ago. Not far away.” It will run from
May 8 until Jan. 3, 2020.
The exhibition at the Museum of
Jewish Heritage, at 36 Battery Place, is
being produced in partnership with the
Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in
Poland and the international exhibition
fi rm Musealia.
“The freight car is symbolic of the
murder of millions of people,” said
Bruce C. Ratner, chairperson of the Museum’s
board of trustees. “Auschwitz is
not ancient history but living memory,
warning us to be vigilant, haunting us
with the admonition ‘Never Again.’ It
compels us to look around the world
and mark the ongoing atrocities against
vulnerable people, and to take a fi rm
stand against hate, bigotry, ethnic violence,
religious intolerance and nationalist
brutality of all kinds.”
The freight
car was delivered to
the installation site on a fl atbed
truck. A crane then raised it onto rails
that were laid at the site.
An Auschwitz survivor, Ray Kaner,
was at the March 31 installation.
“This car that transported so many
people — their destination was to die,”
she said. “I’m glad to let people know
what happened when there is hate,
prejudice and anti-Semitism because
we were designated to die only because
of our religion. I feel that it is
so important that people should know
what we went through for no reason
other than we were Jews. I speak now
as much as I can, so children know
what happened to us when we were
children.”
The car is 11.5 feet wide and 31.5
feet long, with about 215 square feet of
space. Train cars like it were used in
World War II to transport soldiers and
prisoners of war. And they were used
to deport Jews, Romani and others to
ghettos and concentration camps.
At the Auschwitz concentration
camp in Poland, more than 1.1 million
people, including about 1 million Jews,
were murdered. Most of them were
taken there in train cars like the one installed
PHOTO BY GABE HERMAN
This German WWII freight
car was recently installed
outside the
Museum of Jewish
Heritage
in Battery
Park.
in front of the museum.
“An original wagon will allow all
passersby to refl ect on how the memory
of Auschwitz is part of our modern
world,” said Luis Ferreiro, director of
Musealia and the exhibition project.
“Understanding how that place came to
be, and what this means for our view of
ourselves, is one of the core purposes
of this project.”
The Auschwitz exhibit will include
more than 700 original objects, including
personal items of survivors and
victims, and artifacts from the concentration
camp. It will also have 400
photographs. More information can
be found at mjhnyc.org/exhibitions/
auschwitz.
Residents vote on how to use $1M in funds
BY GABE HERMAN
For the sixth year in a row, residents
of Council District 3 have
weighed in to vote on participatory
budgeting items for the Village,
Chelsea and Hells Kitchen.
Council District 3 had 12 projects up
for vote, on a wide range of issues, including
accessibility, park upgrades and
transit improvements. To vote, you had
to be a resident of District 3 and at least
11 years old, or in the sixth grade.
People could vote for up to fi ve items
on their ballot. The winning projects
will receive a portion of $1 million in
City Council discretionary funds set
aside for the district initiative. The top
vote-getters are guaranteed funding until
the allotted funds for the district are
used up. Each project includes a price
tag with its description.
One project on this year’s ballot
would add real-time clocks at fi ve
bus stops, with priority given to the
M11 line. That project would cost
$200,000.
Another project would renovate the
bathrooms at Hudson Park Library and
make them ADA handicap accessible.
That would cost $300,000.
There is also a proposal to make
two bathrooms accessible at Park West
High School, at 525 W. 50th St., for
$170,000. And another would make
the entrance to P.S. 51, at 525 W. 44th
St., more accessible with electric doors
and improved lighting, for $250,000.
An expo in Chelsea on March 28 let
residents learn more about the projects
they could vote for in this year’s process.
Early voting started at the expo,
which was held in the evening at Hudson
Guild, at 441 W. 26th St. between
Ninth and Tenth Aves.
Voting ran from March 30 to April
7. People could vote online at https://
pbnyc2019.d21.me/ or in person at several
different sites. Online voting also
concluded on April 7.
Eddie Lauria, who voted at the expo,
has lived on 17th St. between Ninth
and Tenth Aves. for 54 years.
He said the project most important
to him was fi xing the pathway along 17
St. in Gertrude Kelly Park, just west of
Eighth Ave. He said the path has been
uneven and in disrepair for many years,
and needs to be fl attened out and have
new stones installed.
Another important issue for Lauria
was adding real-time clocks at bus
stops. He said he takes the bus often
and sometimes has to wait a long time
for buses to arrive.
“You can’t rely on the schedule,”
Lauria said. “It’s not accurate.”
Councilmember Corey Johnson, who
is the City Council speaker, attended
the expo and toured each station, talking
with representatives who were advocating
for each project.
After reviewing all the projects,
Johnson told this paper that the delegates
and volunteer working groups
who came up with the projects did a
great job.
“I am really pleasantly surprised every
year at the creativity of what they
come up with,” he said.
Johnson said that the two items on
this year’s ballot that stood out for him
were the accessible bathrooms at Park
West High School and the accessible
entrance at P.S. 51. He said they jibed
with his calls for more accessibility
over all in the city.
“These are two projects I think we
shouldn’t have to fund: They should be
done already,” Johnson said. “But I’m
really glad they’re in line with what I’ve
been talking about. All the projects
here are very exciting.”
This is the sixth year of participatory
budgeting in District 3. A Johnson aide
said the numbers of voters were up this
year. The winners will be presented in
May at Johnson’s State of the District
address.
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