Ruth Gruener
Author of Destined to Live: A True Story of a Child in the Holocaust
Works by Ruth Gruener
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Other names
- Gamser, Aurelia (birth name)
- Birthdate
- 1933
- Gender
- female
- Occupations
- memoirist
Holocaust survivor - Short biography
- Ruth Gruener was born Aurelia Gamser to a Jewish family in Lvov, Poland. She was a small child when Nazi Germany invaded in World War II and occupied her hometown.
Her father smuggled her out of the Lvov Ghetto under his overcoat and placed her with Christian friends, who hid her at great risk to themselves. She shared a room with the family's teenage daughter, Joanna Zalucka. After eight months, Ruth was taken to the home of another Polish Christian family that also hid her parents. She had to spend so much time silent and immobilized that after being liberated in 1944, she had to relearn how to walk and talk normally. She and her parents were the only ones from their extended family of 300 who survived the Holocaust.
They emigrated together to the USA in 1953, settling in Brooklyn.
Ruth married Jack Gruener, also a survivor, with whom she had two children. She works as a docent at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan. She and her husband volunteer to visit schools in New York and around the country to educate students about the Holocaust.
Ruth wrote a memoir, Destined to Live: A True Story of a Child in the Holocaust, published in 2008. - Nationality
- USA
Poland (birth) - Birthplace
- Lvov, Poland
- Places of residence
- Brooklyn, New York, USA
New York, New York, USA - Associated Place (for map)
- New York, USA
Members
Reviews
Out of Hiding: A Holocaust Survivor’s Journey to America (With a Foreword by Alan Gratz) by Ruth Gruener
This was interesting since the author was never found when she was in hiding. A good portion of the book deals with Ruth Gruener's life after the liberation and her coming to America. She gives a glimpse of the difficulty in transitioning to a new life, and the anxiety she would have from time to time after her move to The United States.
Out of Hiding: A Holocaust Survivor’s Journey to America (With a Foreword by Alan Gratz) by Ruth Gruener
This was interesting since the author was never found when she was in hiding. A good portion of the book deals with Ruth Gruener's life after the liberation and her coming to America. She gives a glimpse of the difficulty in transitioning to a new life, and the anxiety she would have from time to time after her move to The United States.
Ruth Gruener is a holocaust survivor and this book is an auto-biography (historical non-fiction) about herself. She describes in child language the story of her childhood from age 7 to about 16. She explains the hardships of hiding in a box for weeks at a time and then learning to walk again when she got out. Ruth ended up traveling to America to live after WWII and describes the difficult transition.
The character development of Ruth grew more and more and the book continued. At first the show more reader didn't know much about Ruth and her famiy and didn't feel emotionally attached when they lost their house and all their belongings. As the book continues Ruth's sincere, genuine personality is expressed and as a reader gets harder to watch her suffer pain. Ruth ends up surviving and has a happy ending to her life.
Media- none
Use- Read Aloud during WWII unit, Book Group for 5th graders, Auto-biography study show less
The character development of Ruth grew more and more and the book continued. At first the show more reader didn't know much about Ruth and her famiy and didn't feel emotionally attached when they lost their house and all their belongings. As the book continues Ruth's sincere, genuine personality is expressed and as a reader gets harder to watch her suffer pain. Ruth ends up surviving and has a happy ending to her life.
Media- none
Use- Read Aloud during WWII unit, Book Group for 5th graders, Auto-biography study show less
This was a wonderful true story of a holocaust survivor, written as an autobiography. The author lived in hiding for much of the war, and successfully immigrated to New York after.
This book would be appropriate around 5th grade to be read independently, perhaps earlier if read with an adult. The vocabulary is simple, and is accessible for many levels of readers. This would be a good pre-cursor to reading Anne Frank, because it is shorter and has many photos.
This book would be appropriate around 5th grade to be read independently, perhaps earlier if read with an adult. The vocabulary is simple, and is accessible for many levels of readers. This would be a good pre-cursor to reading Anne Frank, because it is shorter and has many photos.
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Statistics
- Works
- 2
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 642
- Popularity
- #39,292
- Rating
- 4.2
- Reviews
- 6
- ISBNs
- 11
- Languages
- 2