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• Letter 5: Ruth Barnett

Letter 5: Ruth Barnett

My Dear Young Friend,

I am delighted to have the chance to speak to you in this letter. I am a former schoolteacher and psychotherapist and I speak with groups in schools and colleges about how learning about the Holocaust can help us to prevent more atrocities.

In 1939, my brother and I came to England on the Kindertransport from Berlin to escape the Nazi Terror. I was only four and my brother was seven years old. We lived in three foster-families and a hostel during the ten years we were separated from our parents. It was a hard time during WWII. My father escaped at the last moment to Shanghai, which was the only country left that allowed Jews to come in. My mother stayed in Germany in hiding. They were both so hurt and damaged by what happened to them that they were not able to talk about it when my father came back from China and we met up again in Germany after ten years. It was very difficult for me; I was 14 then and they were total strangers. I didn’t speak any German and it took me a long time to make a new relationship with them. Germany was a very frightening place for me after the war and I could not settle down there. I came back to England and married a British-born Jew who helped me to regain my shattered trust in people. We have three grownup children and two lovely grandchildren. My brother settled in Germany and also has three children and one grandchild. We have been able to come through the war and rebuild our lives, but millions of people died or were not able to rebuild normal lives.

• Letter5_Ruth (pdf)