Ruth Gruber
Encyclopedia
Ruth Gruber is an American journalist, photographer, writer, humanitarian and a former United States government official.
. In 1931, she won another fellowship from the Institute of International Education
to study in Cologne
, Germany. She received a Ph.D in one year from the University of Cologne
in German Philosophy, Modern English Literature and Art History, becoming the youngest person in the world to receive a doctorate. During this time, Gruber had an extensive relationship with Virginia Woolf
. While in Germany, Gruber witnessed Nazi rallies and after completing her studies and returning to America, she brought the awareness of the dangers of Nazism.
Gruber's writing career began in 1932. In 1935, The New York Herald Tribune asked her to write a feature series about women under Fascism
and Communism
. While working for Herald Tribune, she became the first foreign correspondent to fly through Siberia
into the Soviet
Arctic
.
, Secretary of the Interior
Harold L. Ickes
appointed Gruber as his Special Assistant. In this role, she carried out a study on the prospects of Alaska for homesteading G.I.s
after the war. In 1944, she was assigned a secret mission to Europe to bring one thousand Jewish refugees and wounded American soldiers from Italy to the US. Ickes made her "a simulated general" so in case the military aircraft she flew in was shot down and she was caught by the Nazis, she would be kept alive according to the Geneva Convention. Throughout the voyage, the Army troop transport Henry Gibbins was hunted by Nazi seaplane
s and U-boat
s. Gruber's book Haven: The Dramatic Story of 1000 World War II Refugees and How They Came to America was based on case histories she recorded as she interviewed the refugees.
Since the U.S. Congress refused to lift the quota
on Jewish immigration to the United States from Europe, President Roosevelt acted by executive authority and invited the group of one thousand to visit America. The refugees were to be guests of the president and upon arriving in New York, they were transferred to Fort Ontario
, a decommissioned Army training base near Oswego, New York
and locked behind a chain link fence with barbed wire. While U.S. government agencies argued about whether they should be allowed to stay or, at some point, be deported to Europe, Gruber lobbied to keep them through the end of the war. It was not until January 1946 that the decision was made to allow them to apply for American residency. This was the only attempt by the United States to shelter Jewish refugees during the war.
A 2001 film called Haven was based on Gruber's book, with Natasha Richardson
portraying Ruth Gruber.
In 1946, Gruber took leave from her federal post to return to journalism. The New York Post asked her to cover the work of a newly created Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry
on Palestine. The Committee was to decide the fate of 100,000 European Jewish refugees who were living in European camps as displaced person
s (DP). Harry Truman pressed Great Britain to open the doors of British Mandate of Palestine. The committee members spent four months in Europe, Palestine, and the Arab countries and another month in Switzerland digesting their experiences. At the end of its deliberations, the committee's twelve members unanimously agreed that Britain should allow 100,000 Jewish immigrants to settle in Palestine. British foreign minister Ernest Bevin
rejected the finding.
Eventually the issue was taken up by the recently established United Nations
, which appointed a Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP). Gruber accompanied UNSCOP as a correspondent for the New York Herald.
ship entering the Haifa harbor after it was attacked by the Royal Navy
while making an attempt to deliver 4,500 Jewish refugees. To meet the refugees, Gruber flew to Cyprus, where she witnessed and photographed refugees detained by the British. The British then sent the refugees to Port-de-Bouc
in France and Gruber went there.
Tthe refugees refused to disembark, however, and, after 18 days standoff, the British decided to ship the Jews back to Germany. Out of many journalists from around the world reporting on the affair, Gruber alone was allowed by the British to accompany the DPs back to Germany. Aboard the prison ship Runnymede Park, Gruber photographed the refugees, confined in a wire cage with barbed wire on top, defiantly raising a Union Jack flag on which they had painted a swastika.
, and continued her journalistic travels. She wrote a popular column for Hadassah Magazine, "Diary of an American Housewife."
In 1978 she spent a year in Israel writing Raquela: A Woman of Israel, about an Israeli nurse, Raquela Prywes
, who worked in a British detention camp and in a hospital in Beersheba
. This book won the National Jewish Book Award in 1979 for Best Book on Israel.
In 1985 at the age of 74, she visited isolated Jewish villages in Ethiopia and described the rescue of the Ethiopian Jews
in Rescue: The Exodus of the Ethiopian Jews. Gruber has received many awards for her writing and humanitarian acts, including the Na'amat Golda Meir
Human Rights Award and awards from the Simon Wiesenthal Center
's Museum of Tolerance
.
In 1991, Gruber published volume one of her autobiography Ahead of Time: My Early Years as a Foreign Correspondent.
On October 21, 2008, Gruber was honored for her work defending free expression by the National Coalition Against Censorship
.
in New York City. The film covers Gruber's life from 1911 to 1947. She turned 100
in September 2011.
Early life
Ruth Gruber was born in Brooklyn, New York, one of five children of Russian Jewish immigrant parents David and Gussie Gruber. She dreamed of becoming a writer and was encouraged by her parents to obtain higher education. At eighteen she won a postgraduate fellowship at the University of Wisconsin–MadisonUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
. In 1931, she won another fellowship from the Institute of International Education
Institute of International Education
Institute of International Education - is a non-profit organization promoting international exchange of education and training. It was established in 1919 and is based in the USA....
to study in Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, Germany. She received a Ph.D in one year from the University of Cologne
University of Cologne
The University of Cologne is one of the oldest universities in Europe and, with over 44,000 students, one of the largest universities in Germany. The university is part of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, an association of Germany's leading research universities...
in German Philosophy, Modern English Literature and Art History, becoming the youngest person in the world to receive a doctorate. During this time, Gruber had an extensive relationship with Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
. While in Germany, Gruber witnessed Nazi rallies and after completing her studies and returning to America, she brought the awareness of the dangers of Nazism.
Gruber's writing career began in 1932. In 1935, The New York Herald Tribune asked her to write a feature series about women under Fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
and Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
. While working for Herald Tribune, she became the first foreign correspondent to fly through Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
into the Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
Arctic
Arctic
The Arctic is a region located at the northern-most part of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost...
.
Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior
During World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Secretary of the Interior
United States Secretary of the Interior
The United States Secretary of the Interior is the head of the United States Department of the Interior.The US Department of the Interior should not be confused with the concept of Ministries of the Interior as used in other countries...
Harold L. Ickes
Harold L. Ickes
Harold LeClair Ickes was a United States administrator and politician. He served as United States Secretary of the Interior for 13 years, from 1933 to 1946, the longest tenure of anyone to hold the office, and the second longest serving Cabinet member in U.S. history next to James Wilson. Ickes...
appointed Gruber as his Special Assistant. In this role, she carried out a study on the prospects of Alaska for homesteading G.I.s
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
after the war. In 1944, she was assigned a secret mission to Europe to bring one thousand Jewish refugees and wounded American soldiers from Italy to the US. Ickes made her "a simulated general" so in case the military aircraft she flew in was shot down and she was caught by the Nazis, she would be kept alive according to the Geneva Convention. Throughout the voyage, the Army troop transport Henry Gibbins was hunted by Nazi seaplane
Seaplane
A seaplane is a fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing on water. Seaplanes that can also take off and land on airfields are a subclass called amphibian aircraft...
s and U-boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
s. Gruber's book Haven: The Dramatic Story of 1000 World War II Refugees and How They Came to America was based on case histories she recorded as she interviewed the refugees.
Since the U.S. Congress refused to lift the quota
Emergency Quota Act
The Emergency Quota Act, also known as the Emergency Immigration Act of 1921, the Immigration Restriction Act of 1921, the Per Centum Law, and the Johnson Quota Act restricted immigration into the United States...
on Jewish immigration to the United States from Europe, President Roosevelt acted by executive authority and invited the group of one thousand to visit America. The refugees were to be guests of the president and upon arriving in New York, they were transferred to Fort Ontario
Fort Ontario
Fort Ontario is a historic fort situated by the City of Oswego, in Oswego County, New York in the United States of America. It is owned by the state of New York and operated as a museum known as Fort Ontario State Historic Site....
, a decommissioned Army training base near Oswego, New York
Oswego, New York
Oswego is a city in Oswego County, New York, United States. The population was 18,142 at the 2010 census. Oswego is located on Lake Ontario in north-central New York and promotes itself as "The Port City of Central New York"...
and locked behind a chain link fence with barbed wire. While U.S. government agencies argued about whether they should be allowed to stay or, at some point, be deported to Europe, Gruber lobbied to keep them through the end of the war. It was not until January 1946 that the decision was made to allow them to apply for American residency. This was the only attempt by the United States to shelter Jewish refugees during the war.
A 2001 film called Haven was based on Gruber's book, with Natasha Richardson
Natasha Richardson
Natasha Jane Richardson was an English actress of stage and screen. A member of the Redgrave family, she was the daughter of actress Vanessa Redgrave and director/producer Tony Richardson and the granddaughter of Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson...
portraying Ruth Gruber.
Post-war career
Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry
The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry was a joint British and American attempt in 1946 to agree upon a policy as regards the admission of Jews to Palestine. The Committee was tasked to consult representative Arabs and Jews on the problems of Palestine, and to make other recommendations 'as may be...
on Palestine. The Committee was to decide the fate of 100,000 European Jewish refugees who were living in European camps as displaced person
Displaced person
A displaced person is a person who has been forced to leave his or her native place, a phenomenon known as forced migration.- Origin of term :...
s (DP). Harry Truman pressed Great Britain to open the doors of British Mandate of Palestine. The committee members spent four months in Europe, Palestine, and the Arab countries and another month in Switzerland digesting their experiences. At the end of its deliberations, the committee's twelve members unanimously agreed that Britain should allow 100,000 Jewish immigrants to settle in Palestine. British foreign minister Ernest Bevin
Ernest Bevin
Ernest Bevin was a British trade union leader and Labour politician. He served as general secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union from 1922 to 1945, as Minister of Labour in the war-time coalition government, and as Foreign Secretary in the post-war Labour Government.-Early...
rejected the finding.
Eventually the issue was taken up by the recently established United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
, which appointed a Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP). Gruber accompanied UNSCOP as a correspondent for the New York Herald.
Exodus 1947
Gruber witnessed the Exodus 1947Exodus (ship)
Exodus 1947 was a ship that carried Jewish emigrants, that left France on July 11, 1947, with the intent of taking its passengers to the British mandate for Palestine. Most of the emigrants were Holocaust survivor refugees, who had no legal immigration certificates to Palestine...
ship entering the Haifa harbor after it was attacked by the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
while making an attempt to deliver 4,500 Jewish refugees. To meet the refugees, Gruber flew to Cyprus, where she witnessed and photographed refugees detained by the British. The British then sent the refugees to Port-de-Bouc
Port-de-Bouc
Port-de-Bouc is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France.-Population:-References:*...
in France and Gruber went there.
Tthe refugees refused to disembark, however, and, after 18 days standoff, the British decided to ship the Jews back to Germany. Out of many journalists from around the world reporting on the affair, Gruber alone was allowed by the British to accompany the DPs back to Germany. Aboard the prison ship Runnymede Park, Gruber photographed the refugees, confined in a wire cage with barbed wire on top, defiantly raising a Union Jack flag on which they had painted a swastika.
After 1950
In 1951, Gruber got married. She gave birth to two children, one of whom is epidemiologist David MichaelsDavid Michaels (epidemiologist)
David Michaels is currently the Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration . He is a Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services. Dr...
, and continued her journalistic travels. She wrote a popular column for Hadassah Magazine, "Diary of an American Housewife."
In 1978 she spent a year in Israel writing Raquela: A Woman of Israel, about an Israeli nurse, Raquela Prywes
Raquela Prywes
Raquela Prywes was a nurse in Israel, trained in midwifery, and obstetrics, at the Hadassah Medical Center. A ninth generation Jerusalemite, Raquela is the chief protagonist in the eponymous book, written by Ruth Gruber, who, in 1978, spent a year in Israel writing the life story...
, who worked in a British detention camp and in a hospital in Beersheba
Beersheba
Beersheba is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the seventh-largest city in Israel with a population of 194,300....
. This book won the National Jewish Book Award in 1979 for Best Book on Israel.
In 1985 at the age of 74, she visited isolated Jewish villages in Ethiopia and described the rescue of the Ethiopian Jews
Beta Israel
Beta Israel Israel, Ge'ez: ቤተ እስራኤል - Bēta 'Isrā'ēl, modern Bēte 'Isrā'ēl, EAE: "Betä Ǝsraʾel", "Community of Israel" also known as Ethiopian Jews , are the names of Jewish communities which lived in the area of Aksumite and Ethiopian Empires , nowadays divided between Amhara and Tigray...
in Rescue: The Exodus of the Ethiopian Jews. Gruber has received many awards for her writing and humanitarian acts, including the Na'amat Golda Meir
Golda Meir
Golda Meir ; May 3, 1898 – December 8, 1978) was a teacher, kibbutznik and politician who became the fourth Prime Minister of the State of Israel....
Human Rights Award and awards from the Simon Wiesenthal Center
Simon Wiesenthal Center
The Simon Wiesenthal Center , with headquarters in Los Angeles, California, was established in 1977 and named for Simon Wiesenthal, the Nazi hunter. According to its mission statement, it is "an international Jewish human rights organization dedicated to repairing the world one step at a time...
's Museum of Tolerance
Museum of Tolerance
The Museum of Tolerance , a multimedia museum in Los Angeles, California, USA, with an associated museum and professional development multi-media training facility in New York City, is designed to examine racism and prejudice in the United States and the world with a strong focus on the history of...
.
In 1991, Gruber published volume one of her autobiography Ahead of Time: My Early Years as a Foreign Correspondent.
On October 21, 2008, Gruber was honored for her work defending free expression by the National Coalition Against Censorship
National Coalition Against Censorship
The National Coalition Against Censorship , founded in 1974, is an alliance of 50 national non-profit organizations, including literary, artistic, religious, educational, professional, labor, and civil liberties groups...
.
2010 documentary Ahead of Time
On September 10, 2010, a documentary film entitled Ahead of Time premiered at the Angelika Film CenterAngelika Film Center
Angelika Film Center is a movie theater chain in the United States that features independent and foreign films. It operates theaters in New York City and Texas. Its headquarters are in New York City.-History:...
in New York City. The film covers Gruber's life from 1911 to 1947. She turned 100
Centenarian
A centenarian is a person who is or lives beyond the age of 100 years. Because current average life expectancies across the world are less than 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. Much rarer, a supercentenarian is a person who has lived to the age of 110 or more, something only...
in September 2011.
Books
- Witness: One of the Great Correspondents of the Twentieth Century Tells Her Story Schocken (2007) ISBN 0805242430
- Virginia Woolf: The Will To Create As A Woman, 2005
- Inside of Time: My Journey from Alaska to Israel, 2002, 2004
- Exodus 1947: The Ship That Launched the Nation, 1999 (ISBN 0-8129-3154-8), 2007
- Ahead of Time: My Early Years As a Foreign Correspondent, 1991, 2001
- Rescue: The Exodus of the Ethiopian Jews, 1987
- Haven: The Dramatic Story of 1000 World War II Refugees and How They Came to America, 1983, 2000
- Raquela: A Woman of Israel, 1978, 1985, 1993, 2000
- They Came to Stay (coauthor: Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky), 1976
- Die Bauern-Passion Von Waal (coauthors: Ursula Zeidler, Gerhard Eberts), 1976
- Felisa Rincon De Gautier: The Mayor of San Juan, 1972
- Puerto Rico: island of promise
- Israel on the seventh day, 1968
- Israel today: Land of many nations, 1958
- Israel without tears, 1950
- Destination Palestine: The story of the Haganah ship Exodus 1947, 1948
- I Went To The Soviet Union, 1944
- I Went to the Soviet Arctic, 1939, 1991
External links
- Ruth Gruber: A Documentary Film (2009) — official site
- Voices on Antisemitism Interview with Ruth Gruber from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Life's Worth of Living - Witnessing the Life of Foreign Correspondent, Ruth Gruber, in Her New Book "WITNESS" WNN - Women News Network, August 21, 2007
- Ruth Gruber interview May 9, 2007 - BBC news, "The World" radio show.
- Charting a New Map Seventy Years Later-Ruth Gruber in the Quest for Virginia Woolf by Lys Anzia 2006 Moondance magazineMoondance magazineMoondance Magazine is an online international women's literary, culture and art journal.The magazine began in 1996 as one of the first publications to appear online in the early days of the "World Wide Web", only three years after the first web developers from CERN in Geneva, Switzerland announced...
. - Ruth Gruber (Jewish Virtual LibraryJewish Virtual LibraryJewish Virtual Library is an online encyclopedia published by the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise . Established in 1993, it is a comprehensive website covering Israel, the Jewish people, and Jewish culture.-History:...
) - Ruth Gruber (Jewish Women's Archive)
- A Circle Completed: Ruth Gruber and Virginia Woolf
- Chat with Ruth Gruber (About.com 20th Century History)
- Miriam's Cup: Biography. Ruth Gruber
- When Oswego Was a Haven (State University of New YorkState University of New YorkThe State University of New York, abbreviated SUNY , is a system of public institutions of higher education in New York, United States. It is the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States, with a total enrollment of 465,000 students, plus...
at Oswego) - A Woman of Substance. Ruth Gruber flourishes, even in her 90s by Myrna Blyth. July 1, 2005
- EXODUS 1947 Documentary Film By Elizabeth Rodgers & Robby Henson Includes Interview with Ruth Gruber