Description
“An engrossing, compelling story―it is profound, harrowing and intensely moving. This story needs to be told, it needs to be read and needs to be understood. As a reader, I’m grateful to you for having written it. You have my absolute respect.”
—Grant Arthur Gochin, author of Malice, Murder, and Manipulation
“I found this book very compelling; I read the entire book in one sitting―just could not put it down. It resonates with the history, feelings, and struggles of Holocaust survivors and the second generation. The highlight for me was the last chapter and its new character, ending this memoir as an affirmation of life.”
—Joyce Levin, Secretary, American Gatherings of Adult Children of the Holocaust Survivors, Former Secretary, National Survivors of the Holocaust, and President, Manhattan Chapter of Women Holocaust Survivors
“Told in a clear and readable manner, Ruth is a chronicle of success and persistence in the face of great adversity. Surviving the traumas inflicted by parents who were irreparably damaged by the Holocaust cannot have been easy. Klein is very brave to have made her story public, and [she is] to be commended for her research to fill in the history of the times and the history of her family.”
—Margaret L Kripke, Professor Emerita and Former Executive Vice President, U.T. M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
“From its gripping beginning to its touching conclusion, Ruth Klein’s memoir offers an unusual personal perspective on the long-term impact of the Holocaust on her family but also on dispersed communities of fellow survivors, from displaced persons camps in post-war Germany to a neighborhood in transition in mid-century Los Angeles to a retirement home in modern-day Tel-Aviv. Her family’s is a story of dreadful losses and pain leading to a kind of reconciliation through Klein’s gathering and keeping of memories, including those preserved in the fascinating photographs scattered throughout her account.”
—Candace Clements, Art Historian, Independent Scholar, author of several articles on eighteenth-century (or 18th-century) French art and the twentieth-century artist Francis Picabia
“Ruth: Surviving the Survivors is a compelling memoir, written from the unique perspective of a daughter of Holocaust Survivors. Not just survival from the atrocities brought about by Nazi Germany, but also about survival in a new country with parents unable to recover from their traumas. Klein sheds light on the ‘survivor baby boom’ and the oppressive burden of having been ordained to be a substitute for family members who were lost in the Holocaust. Interspersed throughout the memoir are a fantastic collection of black-and-white photographs that give depth and additional meaning to each of the stories.”
—Paul Strug, JD, American Associates of Ben Gurion University, Zin Fellow, Cohort I
“A riveting portrayal of a remarkable survivor who, despite all odds, pulled her life together and overcame immense challenges from her childhood. Starting with the emotional trauma of a Holocaust shattered parents, assuming a great deal of responsibility when her younger twin siblings were born, and sacrificing to keep her family intact. As an accomplished and ardent pianist, her passion remains her greatest outlet and strength in dealing with many adversities in her life and effecting true inner peace to her soul. Ruth: Surviving the Survivors is an exceptionally touching memoir.”
—Kamal Manoly, Senior Level Technical Advisor for Structural Mechanics, Division of Engineering, US Nuclear Regulatory Commission
“From its gripping beginning to its touching conclusion, Ruth Klein’s memoir offers an unusual personal perspective on the long-term impact of the Holocaust on her family but also on dispersed communities of fellow survivors, from displaced persons camps in post-war Germany to a neighborhood in transition in mid-century Los Angeles to a home in modern-day Tel-Aviv. Her family’s is a story of dreadful losses and pain leading to a kind of reconciliation through Klein’s gathering and keeping of memories, including those preserved in the fascinating photographs scattered throughout her account.”
—Candace Clements, Art Historian, Independent Scholar
“In her engrossing memoir Surviving the Survivors, Ruth Klein paints an accurate yet heart-wrenching picture of what it is like to grow up with parents who were irreparably damaged by the Holocaust. While every second-generation (2G) Holocaust survivor’s story is unique, there are threads of similarity that will leave other 2Gs, me included, nodding their heads in solidarity with Klein’s experiences and behaviors. And her unfailingly positive outlook and drive to succeed will leave you cheering for Klein to the final word of her book.”
—Emily Wanderer Cohen, Jewish Book Council, Author of From Generation to Generation
“In her debut memoir, Surviving the Survivors, author Ruth Klein, with both tenderness and candor delves deeply into her family’s dark and horrifying past as victims of the Holocaust. Though some miraculously survive, despite the unimaginable, like Klein, each must bear witness to the many who do not.”
—Sande Boritz Berger, author of The Sweetness
