Bethany Herrmann’s story begins with strife and ends with love. Her maternal grandmother, Esther Elstein, was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1930. Her whole life changed at the age of nine when the Nazis invaded Poland and her family was forced into a concentration camp. Esther was blonde and blue-eyed and with the sacrifice of her mother, she was able to escape. Unfortunately, she never saw her family again. After her escape, Esther stayed in Poland, worked as a nanny, and pretended not to be a Jew; her Aryan looks benefited her for no one suspected her true identity.
When World War II ended and Nazi Germany was defeated, it was still unsafe to live as a Jew in Poland. Esther then moved with her husband, Abba, to Haifa, Israel in search of safety and happiness. Once there, they had Bethany’s mother and uncle. Although Abba was a doctor, it was difficult for the couple to live and support a family comfortably in Israel. Esther did receive some schooling, but she couldn’t find a steady job. Abba and Esther decided to move to the United States when Bethany’s mother was nine and her uncle was seven. Their decision to move to New York, specifically, was not only due to the need for better opportunities and work, but also for religious freedom. America, in their minds, was a place of acceptance.
The family moved to Mount Vernon, New York, an especially Catholic and African American area at the time. There weren’t many synagogues in their new home, but Bethany’s mother and uncle went to Jewish schools and unlike their mother, they did not live their lives in fear of being Jewish. According to Bethany, her mother’s lack of dedication to her Jewish religion may be because of the fear produced by the war back in Europe. Although she isn’t particularly Jewish, Bethany says, she is still proud of her culture.
Esther Elstein thrived in America; always a gifted seamstress, she opened her own store in New Rochelle (a town close to Mount Vernon) where she sold lady’s undergarments, including underwear, bras, corsets, stockings, nightgowns, and lots of customized pieces. She also sold prosthetic breasts to women who had undergone mastectomies. Esther owned that store for forty-two years. Bethany’s grandfather, Abba, was a doctor and never had trouble finding a job. Her grandparents pressured her mother to do well in school and in turn, Bethany’s mother went to SUNY Binghamton and received a degree in social work and anthropology.
Bethany considers this side of her family to be immigrants because they came from Europe to the U.S., longing for liberty and happiness. She doesn’t consider herself an immigrant, though, because she was born in the States and was raised American.
Ironically, Bethany’s other side of the family is from Germany. At first, when Bethany’s mother and father started to date, Esther did not approve. As a woman who escaped the Holocaust, it was natural for her to disapprove. However, as she got to know her daughter’s boyfriend, Esther realized that they wanted to be together and she disregarded her own prejudices and accepted Bethany’s father into the family. Bethany is especially proud of her grandmother’s decision to accept her father and she has every right to be. A traumatizing experience with a certain group of people inevitably taints someone’s view of the group, but in Esther’s case, she ignored her deep-rooted resentments and embraced love over hate.
Bethany’s paternal grandfather came from Germany to the United States as a young boy. His family left Europe due to extreme poverty and settled in The Bronx. They had a large family of five children and were practicing Christians. Their hope was to move to a place in which they could live comfortably, but in reality, it was difficult even in New York. The family struggled. Bethany’s grandfather, however, rebelled against his Christian upbringing and eventually considered himself an agnostic; he strived to fit in with his American peers. He eventually married and had Bethany’s father who also grew up in The Bronx, close to Yonkers. According to Bethany, her father wasn’t urged by his parents to excel in school and as a result, he never became academically strong. Her father never went to college; he was more into craftsmanship for he worked on cars, air conditioners, and framing for a long time before he started his own business. Perhaps Bethany gets her craft from her father, for she strives to be an architect and she gets her intellect from her mother, for she is a Macaulay scholar. Bethany doesn’t consider her father an immigrant because he was born in the United States.
When I interviewed Bethany, she said that she owes her existence to World War II. In her opinion, if the war never happened, neither side of her family would have fled Europe in search of freedom. And if her family hadn’t left their native countries, her parents never would’ve met and she would never have been born. She smiles when she says this: “I can’t believe I exist because of a war.” I ask her if her grandmother Esther ever thought about this. “What do you mean?” she asks. I clarify, “I mean, I wonder if while she was a nanny living in disguise in Poland she ever thought of the positive consequences of the war. When there is war, those affected by it focus on the negatives. Who would’ve known that if the war didn’t occur, she wouldn’t have been blessed with a granddaughter like you?”
Bethany’s family history is an inspirational one for many reasons. Her family was relentless in their demand for liberty and happiness. They sacrificed their lives as they knew them, left behind their homes and family, boldly took control of their lives and came to the New World. They overcame countless struggles, including their own prejudices, and welcomed love in lieu of hate.
