Biography
Ruth Segal (born Ruth Wassermann) is the daughter of Eugen and Nanette (Joelsohn) Wassermann. She was born on May 20, 1926 in Nuremberg, where her father was a well-to-do leather manufacturer. Her older sister Anneliese was born in 1921. In the spring of 1933 Eugen's health began to deteriorate due to tuberculosis. At the same time his business began to suffer because of the anti-Jewish boycott. To make ends meet the family was compelled to rent out their home and move to an apartment. In 1935 they were forced to liquidate the business, and two years later, in April 1937, they moved to Berlin, where Eugen planned to study chemistry in the hopes of becoming a cosmetics manufacturer. During the Kristallnacht pogrom of November 9, 1938, Eugen was arrested and taken to the Alexanderplatz. Nanette followed him there to give him his medications. When she returned home, she found Ruth in acute pain. Unable to locate a Jewish doctor, most of whom had been arrested, she eventually found an elderly physician who diagnosed Ruth as having an acute appendicitis. The next day she was operated upon at a local Catholic hospital. Because of Eugen's poor health, he was sent home instead of to a concentration camp. Following his release the family focused its efforts on getting the children out of Germany. The Wassermanns had a cousin in London affiliated with the Bnai Brith organization, who was able to get the girls on a Kindertransport. Ruth and Anneliese arrived in England on April 8, 1939 and were taken to the Bloomsbury House in London. Immediately upon their arrival the sisters were separated. Anneliese was assigned domestic work, while Ruth was sent to live with a foster family. When this placement proved unsuccessful, Ruth was transferred to a Bnai Brith youth hostel in Hackney (London). In September 1939 all the children from the hostel were evacuated to Cockley Cley in Norfolk, where Ruth remained until August 1941. Since by this time she was fifteen and old enough to work, she was sent back to London, where she took up residence in a Bnai Brith hostel. Eugen and Nanette succeeded in leaving Germany on July 8, 1940. They fled eastward and eventually travelled the Trans-Siberian railroad to Vladivostok. From there, they made their way to Kobe, Japan. They remained in Kobe three weeks until they were able to secure passage on a Japanese freighter sailing from Yokohama to South America. After seven weeks at sea they disembarked in Panama on September 14, 1940. Once ashore Eugen's health quickly deteriorated and he died on December 4. In February 1941 Nanette immigrated to the United States, where she supported herself as a domestic. After the war she was reunited with her children in the United States.
