Ruth Taub Feldman papers

Ruth Taub (now Ruth Feldman) was born on November 30, 1928, in Vienna, Austria as the only child of Markus and Jeanette Taub, who had both been born in Poland. Markus ran a grocery in Vienna and helped support members of his extended family, who had joined him in Austria. In 1938, the grocery was forcibly confiscated by the Nazis and Ruth was forced to leave public school for a Jewish school. In the spring of 1939, the Taubs sent Ruth to the United States as part of the "50 children" who immigrated with the assistance of Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus of Philadelphia, PA. At the same time, Markus and Jeanette sought relatives in the United States who could write an affidavit for their support. Through distant cousins, they were connected with Leah and Harry Grubstein, who were not relatives but willing and able to sign an affidavit for Markus and Jeanette. Ruth arrived in the United States on the President Harding in early June 1939. After a summer at the Brith Sholom camp, she went to live with Leah and Harry Grubstein in New Jersey. Markus and Jeanette waited in Vienna for their quota numbers; in 1940, Markus was imprisoned in Buchenwald. Markus was released when their immigration paperwork was in order, and the couple arrived in the United States in March 1940. The Taubs moved with their distant cousins, the Schneidermans, and Markus began selling fruits and vegetables from a pushcart. He eventually opened a store. Most of their extended family perished in the Holocaust.