Ruth Gruber (1911–2016)
Author of Haven: The Dramatic Story of 1,000 World War II Refugees and How They Came to America
About the Author
Ruth Gruber was born in Brooklyn, New York on September 30, 1911. She received a bachelor's degree from New York University, a master's degree in German at the University of Wisconsin, and a doctorate in German literature at the University of Cologne. She became a photojournalist and author who show more documented Joseph Stalin's gulags, life in Nazi Germany, the Nuremberg war-crimes trials, and the plight of Jewish refugees intercepted by the British on the passage of the Exodus to Palestine in 1947. She wrote 19 books during her lifetime, mostly based on her own experiences, including Destination Palestine: The Story of the Haganah Ship Exodus 1947, I Went to the Soviet Arctic, and Witness: One of the Great Correspondents of the Twentieth Century Tells Her Story. Haven: The Dramatic Story of 1,000 World War II Refugees and How They Came to America was made into a two-part CBS mini-series in 2001. She died on November 17, 2016 at the age of 105. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Ruth Gruber
Works by Ruth Gruber
Haven: The Dramatic Story of 1,000 World War II Refugees and How They Came to America (1983) 245 copies, 2 reviews
Witness: One of the Great Correspondents of the Twentieth Century Tells Her Story (2007) 78 copies, 1 review
Puerto Rico: island of promise 5 copies
Associated Works
Livros Condensados: Aguía No Céu | Vierama Para Sempre | Dois Amigos | A Incrível Mrs. Pollifax — Contributor — 3 copies
Kirjavaliot - Hänen Majesteettinsa Kuningatar, Lääkäri syytettynä, Ministeir tappolistalla, He tulivat… (1977) — some editions — 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1911-09-30
- Date of death
- 2016-11-17
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, USA
- Place of death
- Manhattan, New York, USA
- Places of residence
- New York, New York, USA
- Education
- University of Cologne (Ph.D.)
University of Wisconsin-Madison (MA)
New York University
Bushwick High School - Occupations
- journalist
federal official
photographer
autobiographer
humanitarian
biographer (show all 8)
feminist
foreign correspondent - Relationships
- Ickes, Harold (manager)
Michaels, David-2 (child)
Sobol, Dava (niece) - Organizations
- New York Herald Tribune
New York Post
Hadassah Magazine
American Society of Journalists and Authors
U.S. Department of the Interior - Awards and honors
- Jewish Book Council Lifetime Achievement Award
Norman Mailer Prize (2010) - Short biography
- Ruth Gruber was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Russian Jewish immigrant parents. She graduated from New York University as a teenager and won a fellowship to the University of Wisconsin, where she received a master's degree in German and English literature. In 1931, she received another fellowship to study German philosophy, modern English literature, and art history at the University of Cologne. At age 20, she earned a doctoral degree with a dissertation on Virginia Woolf and was said to be the youngest PhD in the world. While in Germany, she also attended Nazi Party rallies and heard the ranting speeches against Americans and against Jews. Returning home during the Great Depression, Dr. Gruber became a pioneering journalist, writing about women under fascism and communism, and was the first American foreign correspondent allowed to fly through Siberia to the Soviet Arctic. During World War II, she turned her attention to the crisis of Jewish refugees: as a Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior in the Roosevelt Administration, she escorted 1,000 refugees from Italy to the USA and reported their stories. Her book about the experience, Haven: The Unknown Story of 1,000 World War II Refugees, was published in 1983. After the war, Dr. Gruber left government and returned to journalism. She gave the world an eyewitness account of how Holocaust survivors and other Jews were forcibly removed by the British from the refugee ship Exodus 1947, refused entry to Palestine, and deportated back to Germany. In 1951, she married Philip H. Michaels, a community leader in the Bronx, with whom she had two children. Dr. Gruber published more than 16 books and received many awards for her writing and humanitarian acts, including the Na'amat Golda Meir Human Rights Award and awards from the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance. These included Raquela: A Woman of Israel, which won the National Jewish Book Award in 1979; and Rescue: The Exodus of the Ethiopian Jews (1987). The first volume of her autobiography, Ahead of Time: My Early Years as a Foreign Correspondent, was published in 1991, In 2016, an exhibit of her photographs entitled Ruth Gruber: Photojournalist went on display at the Oregon Jewish Museum in Portland.
Members
Reviews
I love the nonchalant way that Gruber relates all her incredible feats: skip several years of schooling? It's because the classes were so full that they moved her up to another class; get PhD in essentially six months halfway through a one-year fellowship in 30s Germany as an American-Jewish student and be the youngest person in the world at the time to do so? It was just the whim of the German supervisor who wanted an American student to do analysis on Virginia Woolf works; be the first American woman journalist to visit and report on the Soviet Arctic? It was just the novelty of the idea that meant she was able to overcome so many bureaucratic hurdles.
I'm simplifying Gruber's own brisk almost-oblivious narration. But the feats speak for themselves. Gruber is clearly aware of the unconventional path she was cutting at the time but her determination - however retrospective it might be - made things seem inevitable. I also really enjoyed that beyond her intellectual and professional achievements, Gruber seemed to put more effort in the book in describing the emotional impacts of her schooltime crushes and relationships. She can do it all!
The book ends after her second visit to the Soviet Arctic, pre-WWII, covering only up to Gruber's mid-twenties. Having read a little about her later accomplishments, it seems safe to say that Gruber was not just a child-wonder but truly a woman with incredible drive and passion. Modern memoirs sometimes come with criticism of, the author is only 25! how could their life possibly fill a book! Well, Ruth Gruber's is how.… (more)
I'm simplifying Gruber's own brisk almost-oblivious narration. But the feats speak for themselves. Gruber is clearly aware of the unconventional path she was cutting at the time but her determination - however retrospective it might be - made things seem inevitable. I also really enjoyed that beyond her intellectual and professional achievements, Gruber seemed to put more effort in the book in describing the emotional impacts of her schooltime crushes and relationships. She can do it all!
The book ends after her second visit to the Soviet Arctic, pre-WWII, covering only up to Gruber's mid-twenties. Having read a little about her later accomplishments, it seems safe to say that Gruber was not just a child-wonder but truly a woman with incredible drive and passion. Modern memoirs sometimes come with criticism of, the author is only 25! how could their life possibly fill a book! Well, Ruth Gruber's is how.… (more)
Gruber accomplished more in her first 25 years than most do in their lifetime. An amazing and brilliant woman, interesting fact, at 20 years old she was (at the time) the youngest person in the world to earn a doctorate. This book covers her first 25 years as she struggled to get jobs as a writer and eventually became a foreign correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune. I would easily recommend this book for young women looking for a feminist to emulate. I'll be reading Inside of Time, published in 2002 at the age of 91, chronicling more of her amazing life.… (more)
Virginia Woolf: The Will to Create as a Woman, by Ruth Gruber is is a reprint of Gruber's 1931 (published in 1935) doctoral dissertation with an extremely interesting introduction. Gruber was born in 1911 in Brooklyn, New York. She entered New York University at fifteen and earned a post graduate fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She won a second fellowship to the University of Cologne, Germany. She earned her PhD in 1931 and was, at the time, the youngest person to earn a PhD. Gruber's time in Germany was also marked with the rise of Hitler and the growth of antisemitism. As an American Jew, she was she witness to Nazi rallies and upon her return to New York she told of the dangers of Nazism. She served as a foreign correspondent to the Herald Tribune, visited the Soviet Union and experienced an unprecedented visit to the Soviet Arctic. In 1944 she went on a secret mission to Europe to bring one thousand Jewish refugees to the United States. She has written nineteen books and on her ninety-ninth birthday, Ahead of Time premiered in New York City. The movie covered her life from 1911 to 1947. Virginia Woolf was written in 2004; a quick bit of math put her at 93 at the time of writing. At present time Gruber is still alive at 101.
I wanted to read this book to learn about, someone I think is one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. Instead, I learned more about another great writer and humanitarian: Ruth Gruber. Gruber's life in nothing short of amazing. She had a stellar academic career and amazing life. She was extremely brave in going to and staying in Germany; she was American and Jewish, both hated in the new Germany. At an American Embassy sponsored event in Berchesgaden, she was insulted by the German host's advances and antisemitism; she left much to the dismay of the American diplomats. Despite the racism in Germany, Gruber did earn her PhD from a board of German professors.
Gruber's writing on Virginia Woolf is a scholarly dissertation, and I will admit that even after reading all Virginia Woolfs books, including her diaries and letters, I found myself over my head more than a few times. That is to be expected, Gruber's intended audience wasn't university trained political scientists like myself. There is a wealth of information in both the dissertation and introduction, which centers on Gruber's year in Germany and her meeting with Virginia Woolf. Gruber makes two important revelations about Virginia Woolf. The first, many (or most) suspected that Virginia Woolf was as Gruber says “catty” which would probably be much more severe in today vernacular. She was warm and friendly in person and in her letters, but her diary revealed something altogether different. Gruber was recorded in Woolf's diary as “some German woman” even though letter were exchanged to United States and not Germany. Gruber also found in Virginia Woolf's diary that the meeting was going to be a “a pure have yer” – supposedly Cockney slang for a task that is forced one but needs to be done. People outside of Woolf's circle of friends, although treated polite in person were treated with contempt in her diaries. (This is also true of her first impressions of Vita Sackville-West.*) Gruber's second revelation is the distinct polarity in Woolf's work. This parallels Woolfs probable and undiagnosed bipolar disorder. The character Orlando was physically bipolar while other references are between light and dark, shape and ambiguity, and between the characters in The Waves.
Gruber spends much of her dissertation on the growth of Woolf as a woman writer. Woolf must battle the critics and her influences and become her own writer. Gruber first sees Woolf as an early twentieth century feminist.
“For Virginia Woolf,” I said, “Woman is the creator and man is the destroyer. Many of her women are heroic and her men are often weak, with no heart, no mind.”
Virginia Woolf was able to rebel, but avoid being labeled a fanatic. Her criticism is not bitter and at times humerous. Gruber tracks and documents Woolf's development and growth into becoming her own writer: a woman writer in a world dominated by men. Although the dissertation may be above the average readers expectations, it is a valuable reference, Gruber's story of meeting Woolf, the exchange of letters, and her time in Germany is alone worth the read. Virginia Woolf is an outstanding read that will give any Virginia Woolf admirer much more than what is expected.
*my observation, not the authors… (more)
I wanted to read this book to learn about, someone I think is one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. Instead, I learned more about another great writer and humanitarian: Ruth Gruber. Gruber's life in nothing short of amazing. She had a stellar academic career and amazing life. She was extremely brave in going to and staying in Germany; she was American and Jewish, both hated in the new Germany. At an American Embassy sponsored event in Berchesgaden, she was insulted by the German host's advances and antisemitism; she left much to the dismay of the American diplomats. Despite the racism in Germany, Gruber did earn her PhD from a board of German professors.
Gruber's writing on Virginia Woolf is a scholarly dissertation, and I will admit that even after reading all Virginia Woolfs books, including her diaries and letters, I found myself over my head more than a few times. That is to be expected, Gruber's intended audience wasn't university trained political scientists like myself. There is a wealth of information in both the dissertation and introduction, which centers on Gruber's year in Germany and her meeting with Virginia Woolf. Gruber makes two important revelations about Virginia Woolf. The first, many (or most) suspected that Virginia Woolf was as Gruber says “catty” which would probably be much more severe in today vernacular. She was warm and friendly in person and in her letters, but her diary revealed something altogether different. Gruber was recorded in Woolf's diary as “some German woman” even though letter were exchanged to United States and not Germany. Gruber also found in Virginia Woolf's diary that the meeting was going to be a “a pure have yer” – supposedly Cockney slang for a task that is forced one but needs to be done. People outside of Woolf's circle of friends, although treated polite in person were treated with contempt in her diaries. (This is also true of her first impressions of Vita Sackville-West.*) Gruber's second revelation is the distinct polarity in Woolf's work. This parallels Woolfs probable and undiagnosed bipolar disorder. The character Orlando was physically bipolar while other references are between light and dark, shape and ambiguity, and between the characters in The Waves.
Gruber spends much of her dissertation on the growth of Woolf as a woman writer. Woolf must battle the critics and her influences and become her own writer. Gruber first sees Woolf as an early twentieth century feminist.
“For Virginia Woolf,” I said, “Woman is the creator and man is the destroyer. Many of her women are heroic and her men are often weak, with no heart, no mind.”
Virginia Woolf was able to rebel, but avoid being labeled a fanatic. Her criticism is not bitter and at times humerous. Gruber tracks and documents Woolf's development and growth into becoming her own writer: a woman writer in a world dominated by men. Although the dissertation may be above the average readers expectations, it is a valuable reference, Gruber's story of meeting Woolf, the exchange of letters, and her time in Germany is alone worth the read. Virginia Woolf is an outstanding read that will give any Virginia Woolf admirer much more than what is expected.
*my observation, not the authors… (more)
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Gruber, who passed away in 2016 at the age of one hundred and five, was brilliant, energetic, and a great communicator. With the assistance of those who shared her passion, she embarked on a critical mission—to help those who fled Hitler's regime to obtain educational opportunities, a livelihood, dignity, and the chance to pursue their dreams. Standing in the way were powerful men who did not welcome the foreign-born to their shores. This outstanding book is based on the diaries that Gruber kept, as well as reports, letters, and government documents.
It is partly thanks to Gruber's persuasiveness and determination to fight for what she believed that the refugees were, at long last, allowed to remain in America. They reunited with family members, married and had children, went to school, and worked hard to achieve their goals. Especially heartening is the author's update on what the evacuees accomplished years after they were granted permanent asylum. Many became successful professionals, excelling in such fields as science, medicine, business, teaching, and the arts.
There are many poignant, enlightening, and humorous anecdotes in "Haven." Although the writing style is, for the most part, factual, there are passages that capture the wide spectrum of the evacuees' emotions: gratitude and relief to be out of physical danger, but also anger and frustration at having to stay in a compound behind a chain-link fence with barbed wire during their eighteen months in Oswego. Besides the chapters describing the joys and sorrows that Gruber and the refugees experienced, we learn about Gruber's personal life; her pilgrimages to concentration camps; tireless efforts to bring displaced persons to Israel; speeches she made to publicize the causes in which she believed; and her remarkable work as a journalist and photographer. When Ruth Gruber set her mind on getting things done, she persisted until every avenue was explored and every possibility exhausted. Ms. Gruber was a woman of valor whose compassion, courage generosity, and activism drove her to move mountains to help those in need.… (more)