Kindertransport Association Oral History Project

Ruth Biswas, was born in Berlin in 1926. Her lawyer father Georg was Jewish, her mother Alma was German. Ruth's brother George died in a labor camp during the war and her sister Esther, died from scarlet fever after the war. The family was assimilated; there was no Jewish tradition at home, except celebrating Hanukka, but they read a Jewish newspaper and she attended a Jewish summer camp in Denmark. The children attended public schools. After 1935 the situation changed. The children had to change schools as a result of antisemitism and her father lost his licence as a lawyer. Some neighbours became hostile and aggressive but others offered them shelter. After Kristallnacht this situation intensified. The family were aware of their precarious situation and put their names on waiting lists for USA, Australia, and South Africa, but the war broke out before they could leave. ; For the last 1 and ½ year of the war, Ruth's father was imprisoned, in Berlin, in a zamellage and a police prison. Ruth left Berlin with the Kindertransport on Sunday 21, 1939. In London, she stayed with a family who had intermarried. She is grateful that they saved her life, but they made her do heavy housework. name. She received a diploma in agriculture and zoology. She mentions getting Red Cross messages from her family and occasional letters. After the war, in 1949, she returned to Germany, where she worked in an international peace camp during the Berlin Airlift. She married a Hindu, a refugee from Bangladesh. They lived in Ghana, Zambia and Nigeria for 20 years. Ruth worked as biology teacher and agricultural lecturer. In 1986, when they retired, she and her husband returned to Berlin to live in the family house that she inherited. At the time of the interview they were planning to move to the Channel Islands. Her husbands did not feel secure in Germany as a foreigner. Both Ruth parents survived the war and lived in the same home in which they lived before the Holocaust. Her father worked as a restitution lawyer. Ruth was interviewed at the Kindertransport Reunion in London. She described how meaningful it was for her to attend this conference and meet persons with similar experiences.