Surviving the Survivors: A Memoir

Description

Ruth Klein's story is about merchants and landowners-aristocratic Polish Jews. It's about their lives in refugee and concentration camps. About parents who survived the Holocaust but could not overcome the tragedy they had experienced, and about their children, who became indirect victims of the atrocities endured by Holocaust victims. After their liberation, Ruth's parents were brought to the Displaced Person Camps in Germany, where they awaited departure to the United States. They were traumatized, starving, and impoverished-but they were among the survivors. Once in America, however, their struggles didn't end. Nearly penniless, Ruth's family-and the close-knit group of Polish refugees they belonged to-were placed for settlement in Los Angeles, where they lived in poverty only a few miles away from the wealth and glamor of Hollywood and Beverly Hills in the early 1950s. Ruth tells how, time after time, her parents had their dreams broken, only to rebuild them again. She also shares what it was like to grow up with parents who were permanently damaged by the effects of the war. Theirs was a dysfunctional household; her parents found great joy and delight moving through life's experiences in their new country, yet tumult and discord colored their world as well. As a young girl, Ruth developed a passionate relationship with the piano, which allowed her to express a wide range of feelings through her music-and survive the chaos at home. Full of both humor and unfathomable tragedy, Surviving the Survivors is Ruth's story of growing up in an environment unique in time and place, and of how, ultimately, her upbringing gave her a keen appreciation for the value of life and made her, like her parents, a survivor.

Ruth Klein was born in Berlin, Germany and arrived in America as a three-year-old with her parents and older sister. She grew up in Southern California and later moved to Berkeley and the San Francisco Bay Area. Since early childhood, her training in classical music has been the focal point of her life. Growing up surrounded by the history of the Holocaust, she and her sister developed a keen understanding of the impact of the Holocaust on the world-an understanding that led her to write this memoir. Klein taught piano in Houston, Texas, for twenty-three years. Her other interests include the fine arts, literature, and foreign languages . She still lives in Houston with her husband, a biomedical scientist.

"An engrossing, compelling story--it is profound, harrowing and intensely moving. This story needs to be told, it needs to be read and needs to be understood. As a reader, I'm grateful to you for having written it. You have my absolute respect." --Grant Arthur Gochin, author of Malice, Murder, and Manipulation "I found this book very compelling; I read the entire book in one sitting--just could not put it down. It resonates with the history, feelings, and struggles of Holocaust survivors and the second generation. The highlight for me was the last chapter and its new character, ending this memoir as an affirmation of life." --Joyce Levin, Secretary, American Gatherings of Adult Children of the Holocaust Survivors, Former Secretary, National Survivors of the Holocaust, and President, Manhattan Chapter of Women Holocaust Survivors "Told in a clear and readable manner, Ruth is a chronicle of success and persistence in the face of great adversity. Surviving the traumas inflicted by parents who were irreparably damaged by the Holocaust cannot have been easy. Klein is very brave to have made her story public, and [she is] to be commended for her research to fill in the history of the times and the history of her family." --Margaret L Kripke, Professor Emerita and Former Executive Vice President, U.T. M.D. Anderson Cancer Center "From its gripping beginning to its touching conclusion, Ruth Klein's memoir offers an unusual personal perspective on the long-term impact of the Holocaust on her family but also on dispersed communities of fellow survivors, from displaced persons camps in post-war Germany to a neighborhood in transition in mid-century Los Angeles to a retirement home in modern-day Tel-Aviv. Her family's is a story of dreadful losses and pain leading to a kind of reconciliation through Klein's gathering and keeping of memories, including those preserved in the fascinating photographs scattered throughout her account." --Candace Clements, Art Historian, Independent Scholar, author of several articles on eighteenth-century (or 18th-century) French art and the twentieth-century artist Francis Picabia "Ruth: Surviving the Survivors is a compelling memoir, written from the unique perspective of a daughter of Holocaust Survivors. Not just survival from the atrocities brought about by Nazi Germany, but also about survival in a new country with parents unable to recover from their traumas. Klein sheds light on the 'survivor baby boom' and the oppressive burden of having been ordained to be a substitute for family members who were lost in the Holocaust. Interspersed throughout the memoir are a fantastic collection of black-and-white photographs that give depth and additional meaning to each of the stories." --Paul Strug, JD, American Associates of Ben Gurion University, Zin Fellow, Cohort I "A riveting portrayal of a remarkable survivor who, despite all odds, pulled her life together and overcame immense challenges from her childhood. Starting with the emotional trauma of a Holocaust shattered parents, assuming a great deal of responsibility when her younger twin siblings were born, and sacrificing to keep her family intact. As an accomplished and ardent pianist, her passion remains her greatest outlet and strength in dealing with many adversities in her life and effecting true inner peace to her soul. Ruth: Surviving the Survivors is an exceptionally touching memoir." --Kamal Manoly, Senior Level Technical Advisor for Structural Mechanics, Division of Engineering, US Nuclear Regulatory Commission "From its gripping beginning to its touching conclusion, Ruth Klein's memoir offers an unusual personal perspective on the long-term impact of the Holocaust on her family but also on dispersed communities of fellow survivors, from displaced persons camps in post-war Germany to a neighborhood in transition in mid-century Los Angeles to a home in modern-day Tel-Aviv. Her family's is a story of dreadful losses and pain leading to a kind of reconciliation through Klein's gathering and keeping of memories, including those preserved in the fascinating photographs scattered throughout her account." --Candace Clements, Art Historian, Independent Scholar "In her engrossing memoir Surviving the Survivors, Ruth Klein paints an accurate yet heart-wrenching picture of what it is like to grow up with parents who were irreparably damaged by the Holocaust. While every second-generation (2G) Holocaust survivor's story is unique, there are threads of similarity that will leave other 2Gs, me included, nodding their heads in solidarity with Klein's experiences and behaviors. And her unfailingly positive outlook and drive to succeed will leave you cheering for Klein to the final word of her book." --Emily Wanderer Cohen, Jewish Book Council, Author of From Generation to Generation "In her debut memoir, Surviving the Survivors, author Ruth Klein, with both tenderness and candor delves deeply into her family's dark and horrifying past as victims of the Holocaust. Though some miraculously survive, despite the unimaginable, like Klein, each must bear witness to the many who do not." --Sande Boritz Berger, author of The Sweetness