Kindertransport Association Oral History Project

Ruth Knox was born in Mannheim in 1925. Ruth has an older sister. Her father was a cantor in the synagogue and religious teacher for Jewish pupils. Her mother was a singer. Ruth had attended the Kindertransport reunion in Mannheim in 1990 after which she wrote a review. Ruth's family was conservatively religious. She remembers the singing on Friday nights. At that time Zionism had become a central theme of conversation and both Ruth and her sister were active in a Jewish youth movement. In 1937 Jewish children were banned from public schools, and a high level Jewish school was established where the dismissed Jewish teachers taught. The Jewish Kulturbund formed a Jewish orchestra, where Ruth's father played the violin. He was also a member of a string quartet. The family attempted to emigrate to the USA. An uncle who had emigrated in 1937, tried unsuccessfully to obtain affidavits for them. During Kristalnacht, November 1938, the Liebermensch home was raided by the Nazis. Books and valuables were thrown out of the window and burnt, and her father and grandfather were arrested. Ruth's grandfather was soon released, however her father was transferred to Dachau for a month before his release. He was then involved with the Jewish Assistance through which Ruth's sister found a position as a student-nurse in Oldham, England. Ruth came to England via the Netherlands on a kindertransport in May 1939 and was taken in by a Jewish family in Leeds. She and her sister received letters from their parents who were still in Mannheim. Ruth's father perished during the Holocaust. At the outbreak of the war, the children were evacuated to Lincolnshire. Ruth now lives in Florida. The interview was interrupted by an electricity power failure.