Overview
- Interview Summary
- Paula Ruthling (née Pesla Brucha Rubin), born in Poland, describes going with her parents to Germany when she was two years old; living in Frankfurt, Germany in 1935; her parents’ divorce and living with her mother in Paris, France after 1935; the German occupation of Paris; not declaring their Jewish status; being arrested when her child was two years old; being told by the that she was to be shipped to Germany and her husband fainting; being moved from Karlsruhe to Auschwitz; her child being taken and her husband being sent to Dachau; being considered a political prisoner; the constant threat of death and gassing; conditions in the camp, including food, hygiene, lack of water, dressed in rags, and hair shorn; getting through selections and working in a factory; becoming ill and being put in the sick barrack; being tattooed; being sent to another camp; being taken to Hanover, Germany; working in a factory until they were liberated by Americans; returning to Paris; how she wrote letters to her husband in Dachau while she was in Auschwitz; hearing that her daughter was saved from going to Auschwitz by an interfaith couple who adopted her; reuniting with her daughter and husband; the suffering she endured in the camps; her time in Bergen-Belsen; Frankfurt before the war (she shows pictures); books she’s read about the Holocaust; and her inability to understand Hitler's desire to annihilate Jews.
- Interviewee
- Paula Ruthling
- Date
-
interview:
approximately 1973
Physical Details
- Language
- German
- Extent
-
2 sound cassettes (90 min.).
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- Concentration camp inmates--Medical care. Concentration camp inmates--Selection process. Concentration camp tattoos. Crematoriums. Forced labor. Holocaust survivors. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives. Human experimentation in medicine. Jewish women in the Holocaust. Jews, Polish--France. Jews, Polish--Germany. Jews--France--Paris. Prisoners--Abuse of. Women concentration camp inmates. Women political prisoners. World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Liberation. World War, 1939-1945--Conscript labor. World War, 1939-1945--Deportations from France. Women--Personal narratives.
- Geographic Name
- Berlin (Germany) France--History--German occupation, 1940-1945. Frankfurt am Main (Germany) Hannover (Germany) Karlsruhe (Germany) Lower Saxony (Germany) Oświęcim (Poland) Paris (France)--History--1940-1944.
- Personal Name
- Ruthling, Paula.
- Corporate Name
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp) Bergen-Belsen (Concentration camp)
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- Margaret Frankston sent the cassette and the deed of gift signed by Sylvia Renee Beard, Mrs. Ruthling's daughter, in July 1997 to the oral history branch which transferred it to the archives in August 1997.
- Special Collection
-
The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive
- Record last modified:
- 2023-11-16 08:57:39
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn509002
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