Ruth Gellis photographs

Ruth Gellis (née Wuhl) was born on October 31, 1925 in Essen, Germany to Joel Wuhl (b. 1889 in Hungary) and Clara Wuhl (born Anna Zeichner in 1891, in Poland) and had one sister, Margot (Margo, 1924-1928). Joel served in the Austrian Army from 1914-1918 and was in the business of photograph enlargements for traveling salesmen. Around 1935, Joel traveled to Johannesburg, South Africa to find a job in order to leave Germany. About 6 months later, in 1936, Ruth, Clara, and Clara’s brother Felix, left for South Africa to join Joel where he worked at a second-hand clothing store. Ruth went to Hebrew school and learned Dutch, attended synagogue on Saturdays, and took piano lessons.

In 1937, the family moved to Paris where Joel’s brother Kern lived. In 1938, Joel was arrested and taken to the Drancy internment camp. He later served in the French Foreign Legion. Kern, his wife, and three children left Paris and went to the South of France to Bordeaux. Clara and Ruth took a train to meet them in Bordeaux, where they lived for a short time before they were sent to forced residency near Bagnères-de-Bigorre (Hautes-Pyrénées, France). Ruth lived under the false identity of Jacqueline Vidier and befriended Clara Meletz. Clara would teach Ruth things she learned in school because Ruth was not allowed to attend school. Ruth and her mom were later sent to Toulouse, France where they were reunited with Joel and lived in Barbizon for approximately two years. During this time Ruth would ride her bicycle into the mountains to secretly get food for the family.

After the war, Ruth and her parents moved back to Paris where Joel worked in the clothing manufacturing business. Ruth went to the School of Beaux Arts in Paris and met her husband Morris Gellis, a medical student. Ruth and Morris married in 1948 in Paris and had their first child, Annette, in 1949. They immigrated to the United States in 1952 and had two more children: Janice (b. 1958) and Allen (b.1960).