...至死不渝 泰坦尼克真英雄施特劳斯夫妇】_yijuhua_新浪博客

来自 : 新浪博客 发布时间：2021-03-25

Isidore and Ida Straus

RMS Titanic 泰坦尼克号轮船 沉没前

On April 19, 1912, just four days after thesinking of theRMSTitanic,Alfred Crawford testified before theUnited States Senate committee investigating thedisaster. Crawford had been a stateroom stewardon the doomed ship.The man was asked if he knew Mrs. IsidorStraus. He did.Isidor Straus and his wife, Ida, were returning home to NewYork on theTitanic.Straus was a co-owner with his brothers of R. H. Macy Co. aswell as Abraham Straus department store inBrooklyn. The 67-year old wasalso a director of several banks and Vice President of the Chamberof Commerce. He was highly regarded for hisgenerosity.The New YorkTimeswould call him “asupporter of almost every philanthropic and charitable institutionin New York, regardless of creed.”Chester testified that he was in a lifeboat and took Mrs.Straus’ hand to help her in.“She started to get in, but then changed her mindand went back.”Senator Smith asked “Started to get“Yes, she had one foot on the gunwale andthen drew back,” said Chester.Ida Straus looked back to her husband of 41 years standing onthe deck and let go of Chester’shand. “We have been together anumber of years,” she said to herhusband. “Where you will go Iwill go.”She then instructed her maid to take her place on thelifeboat.Later, as the aged couple sat quietly on deck chairs holdinghands, the grandRMSTitanicslipped beneath the icy waters of theAtlantic Ocean.

Water lilies float serenely in the reflecting pool during thededication of the Straus Memorial in 1915 --Libraryof Congress

An orchestra played for the many who assembled for the dedicationon April 12, 1915 --Library of Congress

The couple was mourned nationwide, but nowhere so deeply as inNew York City. Four weeks later a memorialservice was held for them in Carnegie Hall and thousands crammedinto the auditorium. “The greathall was filled to capacity, and hundreds who pleaded to get inwere turned away because there was no more roominside. Every seat and every box was occupied,while perhaps 300 men and women stood up in the rear of theauditorium,” reportedTheNew York Times.During the ceremony, Jacob H. Schiff mentionedIda’s fidelity to her husband.“There is no doubt that in the awful hour whentheTitanicsank thatthe noble woman broke not the oath that she had given at the altar,‘Until death do uspart.’”The cableshipMackay-BennettrecoveredIsidor Straus’s body which was buried in WoodlawnCemetery. Ida was never found, but the Straustomb included an empty spot next to her husband.The Straus home stood at 27-47 Broadway, near105thStreet, within sight of a small,triangular park called Bloomingdale Square. OnJuly 2, 1912 the Board of Aldermen adopted the resolution directingthat the park “is hereby named and shallhereafter be known and designated as ‘StrausPark.’”A move to erect a memorial to the couple was immediate andsubscriptions poured in. $20,000 had been donatedby the Fall. A competition forthe memorial design was held and in NovembertheMagazine ofArtreported that “Theprize was awarded to Mr. Augustus Lukeman, the collaboratingarchitect being Mr. Evarts Tracy.”The little, oddly shaped park made designing an appropriatememorial difficult. “It wasfinally concluded that anything mainly monumental would not bedesirable both because of the modesty of Mr. and Mrs. Straus andbecause the site selected is a small triangular park with abackground of apartment houses which would not serve as a properframe for anything very high,” explained themagazine.Luckman’s design, one of 59 submissions,included a serene lily pond fed by a two-tieredfountain. Above the fountain was a recliningbronze figure of a contemplative female upon a graniteledge. Luckman called his memorial“Memory.”

Today the lily pond has been replaced by a not-so-lovely flower bed--photomuseumplanet.com

Behind the sculpture a granite bench provided a place of restfor those visiting the memorial. The StrausMemorial, paid for entirely by public donations, was dedicated onApril 15, 1915, three years to the day after the sinking oftheRMSTitanic.TheTimescalled it “one of themost beautiful monuments of its kind in thecountry.”Inscribed on the rear of the monument was the biblical passagefrom II Samuel 1:23:Lovely and pleasant were they in their livesAnd in their death they were not dividedThe neighborhood around the Straus Memorialdeclined as the 20thcentury wound downand by 2007 the memorial had suffered some abuse.That year the Parks’ Monuments ConservationProgram initiated a restoration, sponsored mostly by The HistoryChannel.Regretfully, the lily pond—a crucial elementin Augustus Lukeman’s design--was filled in as aflower bed in order to facilitate easier maintenance.

photographs taken by the author

Straus Parkis a small landscaped park ontheUpper WestSideofManhattan, New York, at the intersectionofBroadway,West End Avenue,and106th Street.

结婚四十一年的夫妇

The most notable feature is a bronze 1913 statue by AmericanartistAugustus Lukemanofa nymph gazing over a calm expanse of water in memoryofIdaandIsidor Straus,a United States congressman and co-ownerofMacy’s,who perished on theRMSTitanic.Themodel for the statue wasAudrey Munson.Onthe memorial is carved a passagefromSecond Samuel1:23,\"Lovely and pleasant were they in their lives and in their deaththey were not parted.\" The passage refers toIda’s choice to stay with her beloved husband,Isidor, rather than get safely into a lifeboat.

泰坦尼克号撞上冰山之际，施特劳斯夫人艾达在丈夫的劝说下恋恋不舍地离开，一只脚已经在救生艇内，但她却突然转念，跨出救生艇，又回来和丈夫站在了一起，说道：

“这么多年我们一直生活在一起，此刻你去哪儿我去哪儿。”

施特劳斯夫人把自己在救生艇里的活命的位置让给了一位女佣。
这时有人向67岁的施特劳斯先生提出，“保证不会有人反对像您这样的老先生上小艇……”

伊西·施特劳斯坚定地回答，“我绝不会在别的男人之前上救生艇。”

然后，他挽着63岁的太太艾达的手臂，一对老夫妇蹒姗地走到甲板的藤椅上坐下，

相互依偎着，手挽手，泰然地等待着最后时刻的到来。

，，，，，，

几天后 艾希德的尸体找到了，但艾达的却永无踪影。

人们为她塑像 纪念她对爱情的忠贞 生死相依 不离不弃同生共死 令人下泪 令人崇敬！

艾希德·施特劳斯身为屈指可数的大富翁和美国国会众议院议员，他却没有去寻求特权，而是坦然地面对死亡，

把生的希望让给了别人，把死的定局留给了自己，真正的人，真正的丈夫， 大丈夫！

如今在纽约市的上西城106街的拐角离其当年居所尺步之遥，

矗立着人们当年自发捐资为艾达和艾希德夫妇建造的纪念碑和纪念公园。

曼哈顿 公立198 小学 也是以 施特劳斯夫妇名字命名的。

雕塑和纪念碑公园是在泰坦尼克号沉没 施特劳斯夫妇殉难3周年 来临之际落成的。1915-4-12。

雕像 安详的艾达几乎卧于波浪之上 雕塑家引领人们缅怀追逐着那金光闪亮的心灵

中文有说纪念碑上刻著这样的文字：“无论多少海水都不会淹没爱。”

（Manywaters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drownit.）

其实 碑上根本没有这句话，此语乃 圣经诗歌 Song of Solomon 8里的一言。

，，，，

Its flashes are flashes of fire,