ComteQ Logo
BOOK DESIGN • SHORT RUN PRINTING • ORDER FULFILLMENT • Specializing in Holocaust memoirs and Holocaust education
Home All Titles Bookstore Get Published About Contact
facebook Twitter LinkedIn
Untitled Document
 
Get published now -- it's your legacy!
 

Once We Had a Country
Memoir of a German Holocaust Survivor

by Ruth Heilbronn Gottlieb ©2018, Paperback, ISBN: 978-1-935232-94-0, 176 pp
 

Ruth Heilbronn was born in Lahnstein, a

town on the Rhine River. Her father, Hugo,

a cattle dealer, lost his license because of

Germany’s antisemitic laws. Realizing that

he could not support his family, Hugo

immigrated to the U.S. in October 1938, just

weeks before the November 9-10 Pogrom of

1938, or Kristallnacht. During the first night

of Kristallnacht, the Nazis broke into Ruth’s

home terrorizing her and her mother, Else.

The storm troopers, who wanted to arrest Hugo, ransacked and searched

their apartment thinking that Hugo was hiding. His crime—he was a

Jew. Fortunately, Hugo had already arrived safely in America. From

America, Hugo sent visas for Ruth and Else who arrived in New York

Harbor on April 5, 1939, one day before Ruth’s fourth birthday.

 

 

“The little refugee girl,” a good, albeit talkative, student, completed her

education, graduating from Olney High School and Temple University

in Philadelphia. Ruth, who had always loved children, became an

elementary school teacher in Central Jersey and even in retirement is

involved in an intergenerational sociology class.

 

 

Ruth’s story of coming to the U.S.—not knowing the language, living in

a foster home for a time, realizing that her relatives had been murdered

in the Holocaust and yet coping and ultimately thriving—is motivational

for readers of all ages but especially for children displaced by catastrophe

and adjusting to new lives in the U.S., for them a foreign country

Susan Geld—On Her Family..................................................

Affliction Provides Strength.....................................................

Introduction............................................................................

Chapter One: Generations.....................................................

Chapter Two: Emigration.......................................................

Chapter Three: Loss of Family...............................................

Chapter Four: The Little Refugee Girl...................................

Chapter Five: War Years..........................................................

Chapter Six: A New Home and a Sister..................................

Chapter Seven: Working Papers.............................................

Chapter Eight: German-American Jews.................................

Chapter Nine: Temple University..........................................

Chapter Ten: Dating ..............................................................

Chapter Eleven: Marriage.......................................................

Chapter Twelve: Motherhood.................................................

Chapter Thirteen: Moving to New Jersey...............................

Chapter Fourteen: East Brunswick.........................................

Chapter Fifteen: Teaching ......................................................

Chapter Sixteen: Return to Europe 1971...............................

Chapter Seventeen: Trip to Israel 1972..................................

Chapter Eighteen: Retirement................................................

Chapter Nineteen: Our Family...............................................

Chapter Twenty: Epilogue.......................................................

Message for Students...............................................................

Fate of the Heilbronn Family in Europe..................................

Fate of the Wertheim Family in Europe...................................

Timeline..................................................................................

Acknowledgments...................................................................

Works Cited............................................................................

Endnotes.................................................................................

Maps.......................................................................................

Documents.............................................................................

 

Photographs............................................................................

Ruth Heilbronn was born in Lahnstein, a

town on the Rhine River. Her father, Hugo,

a cattle dealer, lost his license because of

Germany’s antisemitic laws. Realizing that

he could not support his family, Hugo

immigrated to the U.S. in October 1938, just

weeks before the November 9-10 Pogrom of

1938, or Kristallnacht. During the first night

of Kristallnacht, the Nazis broke into Ruth’s

home terrorizing her and her mother, Else.

The storm troopers, who wanted to arrest Hugo, ransacked and searched

their apartment thinking that Hugo was hiding. His crime—he was a

Jew. Fortunately, Hugo had already arrived safely in America. From

America, Hugo sent visas for Ruth and Else who arrived in New York

Harbor on April 5, 1939, one day before Ruth’s fourth birthday.

“The little refugee girl,” a good, albeit talkative, student, completed her

education, graduating from Olney High School and Temple University

in Philadelphia. Ruth, who had always loved children, became an

elementary school teacher in Central Jersey and even in retirement is

involved in an intergenerational sociology class.

Ruth’s story of coming to the U.S.—not knowing the language, living in

a foster home for a time, realizing that her relatives had been murdered

in the Holocaust and yet coping and ultimately thriving—is motivational

for readers of all ages but especially for children displaced by catastrophe

and adjusting to new lives in the U.S., for them a foreign country.

Once We Had a Country

Enlarge
  • Once We Had a Country
  • Once We Had a Country

Price: $19.95
 Order

 

 

 
Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home2/robhub/public_html/book_detail.php:33) in /home2/robhub/public_html/footer.php on line 13 Record not found!