Research Catalog

Title

Surviving the survivors : a memoir / Ruth Klein.

Author

Klein, Ruth, 1947-

Publication

Berkeley, CA : She Writes Press, 2018.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

214 pages : illustrations; 22 cm

Summary

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.

Subject

• Klein, Ruth, 1947-
• Klein, Ruth, 1947- > Family
• Friedlander family
• Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
• 1939-1945
• Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) > Influence
• Children of Holocaust survivors > California > Biography
• Holocaust survivors > Poland > Biography
• Jewish refugees > California > Biography
• BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs
• FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS / Dysfunctional Families
• HISTORY / Holocaust
• Children of Holocaust survivors
• Families
• Holocaust survivors
• Poland
• United States

Genre/Form

• Autobiographies.
• Biographies.
• Personal narratives.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-212).

Contents

Foreword -- Introduction -- The Replacement -- Bronia and Mietek -- The Unspeakable Cold -- "Da Vorne Steht Amerika!" ("There Ahead Stands America!") -- City Terrace -- Our Crowd -- Replacing the Dead -- Uncle Josef and Aunt Roselle -- The Twins Arrive -- The Sensational Seder -- Memories -- My Sister, Sarah -- High School -- Oaths and Vows -- The Great Escape -- In the Years That Followed -- Piano Lesson -- Second Generation -- Pnina -- Acknowledgements -- References -- About the Author

Call Number

JFD 20-1626

ISBN

• 9781631524714
• 1631524712
• 9781631524721 (canceled/invalid)

LCCN

2018937060

OCLC

1050446688

Author

Klein, Ruth, 1947- author.

Title

Surviving the survivors : a memoir / Ruth Klein.

Publisher

Berkeley, CA : She Writes Press, 2018.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-212).

Chronological Term

1939-1945

Research Call Number

JFD 20-1626