TTS Scholar Stories: TTS Alumni created film about Israel called “The Immigrants”
The Immigrants is a documentary by Majken Astrup and Camilla Tuborgh, Masters of Journalism from the Danish School of Journalism and TTS scholarship recipients. Read more about the experience that Majken and Camilla embarked on as they set to film a documentary about the personal narratives of individual Israeli immigrants.
Historical Perspectives: Irene Levin Berman, a Norwegian Jew living in the US
July 13, 2011
Irene Levin Berman is the author of “We are going to pick potatoes,” Norway and the Holocaust, The Untold Story. In this book, she tells the story of the Jewish settlement in Norway at the end of the nineteenth century. She relates her own family’s experiences during The Holocaust and describes what it was like growing up Jewish in Norway after the liberation. Now that her book has been published in Norwegian and English, (Publisher Rowman & Littlefield) she revisits her reflections about this trip back in time.
Irene Levin Berman
Most of this article was written while traveling along the Norwegian west coast from Bergen to Kirkenes this past June, on the Hurtigruten cruise. Such a trip allowed her to focus on her three separate, yet interwoven, identities; she is Norwegian, Jewish and, having spent most of her adult life in the U.S., American. She describes her experiences exploring the breathtaking fjords of Norway, and depicts her visit with the Jewish congregation and to the Jewish Museum in Trondheim during one of the stops on the cruise. The atmosphere that Berman creates triggers renewed focus on her childhood years as an exiled refugee in Norway during World War II. The reader, alongside the author, takes a one-day trip through Norway to the Swedish border, retracing her family’s escape route for the first time since 1942.
For more information regarding Irene Levin Berman’s story, “We are Going to Pick Potatoes,” Norway and the Holocaust, the Untold Story, and the greater story of Norway’s role in World War II, the Holocaust, and the Liberation, see www.Norwayandtheholocaust.com.
Events of Note: Symposium on Scandinavian Music Therapy
Louis Armstrong
THE STORY:
On Tuesday, August 2nd, at the Phillips Ambulatory Care Center in New York City, the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine will host the Scandinavia Scholars Integrative Music and Medicine Grand Rounds. This event, open and free to the public, will feature two informative and interactive presentations led by renowned Scandinavian Music Therapists, Britta Frederiksen and Sunniva Ulstein Kayser.
Music Therapy is a healing process by which Music Therapists treat physical, physiological, emotional, and cognitive issues with activities involving some form of music. Patients, dependent on their individual needs, will listen to music, sing, or engage in some form of movement (for instance, they will dance). Music, as a form of rehabilitation, helps to heal clients, and leads to improvements in other walks of life.
From the TTS Archive: Nazi Proclamation in Denmark
Signed by Adolf Hitler on October 6, 1943, this document legitimized the police organization in Denmark, established to persecute Danish Jews and check the growing number of dissenters.
On August 28, 1943, the German representative in Denmark, Werner Best, handed the Danish Government an ultimatum demanding proclamation of marshal law and death sentences for acts of sabotage. The Danish government, unanimously, and almost instantaneously, rejected the ultimatum. In response, Germany released following proclamation:
“Ich ordne die Errichtung der Kommandostelle eines Höhere SS- und Polizeiführers in Dänemark an. Der Höhere SS- und Polizeiführer ist dem Bevollmächtigenten des Deutschen Reiches beigegeben und arbeitet im engsten Einvernehmen mit ihm.”
“I mandate the establishment of a military headquarters for a Higher SS- and Police Commander in Denmark. The Higher SS- and Police Commander comes under the authority of the “Commissioner of the German Reich” (the Fuehrer) and works in accordance with him.”
Officially, Germany invaded Denmark on April 9, 1940, as part of Operation Weserübung, code name for the Nazi initiative to occupy Norway and Denmark. Yet, until 1943, most Jews were left untouched.
This document was given by Charles I. and Elaine Petschek and is currently on display on the 3rd floor of AJC NY National Office.
Events of Note: Jennie Hagevik Bringaker
Jennie Hagevik Bringaker
ALENE MED HJERNEN
Jennie Hagevik Bringaker is presenting new work at Podium in her solo exhibition, entitled Alene Med Hjernen, on August 4th through August 7th.
Through drawings and video representation, As Bringaker revisits the past in physical memories, old stories reappear. Memories are etched onto our bodies like tatooes we can never get rid of. The relationship between physical experience and physical space complicates the terms “interior” and “exterior.”
In her new video, Nordmarka, Bringaker, together with her childhood friend, Marthe Ramm Fortun, revisits sites from the past. The video is shot by cinematographer Cecilie Semec, known from her collaborations with artists like Bodil Furu, Hanne Ramsdal and Sara Eliassen. The camerawork explores the subjective narrative to the extreme; it blurs the line between art film and nature documentary.
The title of the exhibition is taken from a song by Lars Lillo-Stenberg, Hjernen er Alene. In the context of the show, the title indicatest a specific state of mind; sensation of no longer being able to distinguish the inside from the outside. Houses, the woods, and oceans seem like the minds’ own creations, entrapping the self in a desolate, empty landscape.
The works questions what is more of a constant: the internal or the external. When you look at your face in the mirror, do you see yourself or the ghost of who was once there? How can we tell the difference between what is real from what is a construction of the mind?
“Det er midt på dagen. Jeg er alene i huset
Jeg står midt i stuen
Jeg er alene i huset
Jeg stirrer ut av vinduet
Jeg stirrer ned mot havet
Med ett blir jeg redd
Jeg ser at havet kommer nærmere
Hjernen er alene
Hjernen er alene
Hjernen er alene
-Lars Lillo-Stenberg, 1989
Jennie Hagevik Bringaker holds an MFA in Studio Art from New York University. Her work deals with aspects of theatrical reproductions and character based performances.
With a BFA in theater production and scenography from Akademi for Scenekunst (TAFT), she has been exploringthe architectural dimensions of the performance space in-between the notion of the theater stage and the gallery space. Her work can also be seen at Vigelandsmuseet 25th August 25 – 9th October, where she will be debuting a performance series in relation to a solo show by Lotte Konow Lund. Bringaker has exhibited and performed at Nasjonalmuseet, Museet for Samtidskunst, A.I.R. Gallery, Artist Space, Performa 09- Bruce High Quality, Chez Bushwick, Emily Harvey Foundation and 80 WSE Gallery amongst others.
Opening hours:
Thursday August 4th 7-9pm
Friday 5th -Sunday 7th 12-6pm
Historical Perspectives: Chana Sharfstein
After sixty years, I still believe it is essential that the history of the Holocaust be remembered by us all. The survivors are diminishing in numbers, and with the first-hand witnesses to the atrocities gone, we must redouble our efforts to ensure that the tragic events of that era remain alive. We must never again allow hatred to be all powerful. Just as love beautifies our existence and gives meaning to our life, senseless hatred destroys and consumes the human experience. Hatred brings out cruel animal urges and reduces us to lawless creatures. Our world becomes ugly, obscuring feelings of compassion and concern for those around us.
- Chana Scharfstein
Feature
RSVP NOW! TTS Dinner Benefit on Feb 28
Thanks To Scandinavia is very excited to announce that on Tuesday, February 28th we will be hosting our very first dinner benefit at Swedish star chef Marcus Samuelsson’s hot new restaurant, Red Rooster. Rather than waiting for months to get a seat at this sold out restaurant, why not join us for an evening of [...]
Read More >>
Follow Us:
