Biographical essay by Ruth Stobin, 2014

Ruth Stobin (nee Gottschalk) DOB October 2, 1924 Rheine, Germany June 30, 2014 I was there last November (2013) when the Las Vegas community commemorated the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass). There were almost a thousand people there. When the Holocaust survivors were asked to stand up the woman sitting next to me looked at me as if I were ?the man in the moon!? Her reaction was so funny, I stood there and smiled. She said it was a pleasure to be sitting next to me. That was really nice. Kristallnacht, November, 1938 Shortly after Kristallnacht in 1938, I took long underwear and some apples to the police department because my father had been taken away by the Gestapo. I told them to give the warm underwear and food to my father because he would need them. At 14 years old you are a brazen, na?ve teenager. Father was in Dachau for six weeks. His sister was married to a British citizen living in Hamburg, Germany. The British told all their citizens to get out before the pogrom (Kristallnacht was referred to as the November pogrom by the Jews in Germany). This uncle, who had lived most of his life in Germany, had nothing but his briefcase with him when he left so he could not sponsor other family members and get them out of Germany. To get out of Germany you needed separate papers for every person, including children. My family would need four separate sponsors. The British wanted to get the children out first. My older sister got in March, 1939. I left with the kindertranport in May, 1939. I was still only 14. My father came to England the first week in July but my mother did not get out. Mother?s passport got ?lost? and she was not able to leave. We wondered if her passport was held in order to get a bribe? I know Mother went to a concentration camp in 1944. Her suitcase was found in a labor camp in White Russia. The Red Cross informed us of that after the war. My (paternal) grandmother was also stuck in Germany. Our stay in England was supposed to be temporary and we had papers to go to the US but were waiting for our numbers to come up. There was a quota in the US so we had to wait. We came to the US in 1941. We, my father, sister and I, arrived in New York on January 26, 1941. This was during the war and travel was not so easy. We could not go straight from England because of the war so we took a train to Scotland and then a South African liner to Newfoundland, then to Montreal, New York and finally to Delaware. During the war we had no idea of what was going on with Mother and Grandmother. There was no contact at all. We assumed the worst. I had some elementary education in Germany and no schooling in England. I didn?t speak English yet but learned during the 1.5 years I was there. I never did go to high school but went to a business college for two years in the US. When we left Germany we had been living in Elberfeld. In the late 1960?s or early 1970?s my husband and I were invited as guests of the people of Elberfeld for 3 days. We came to Germany on our own but once we got there, the town treated us to everything. We went to see my former home. It was at the end of a row of homes and I noticed the beautiful cut crystal window on the front door was still there. We could see this upside down monorail from our kitchen window when I was a child. The Holocaust should not be forgotten. Student should be realistically open-minded and study what happened. Go to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum or look online, study it and believe it. Inhumanity like this did happen. Do not take life for granted. Ruth Stobin on a visit to Israel in 1963 (6th from the right holding a white bag and a camera) Gottschalk cousins in 1995 (left to right) Esther Hirsch, Emily Tannenbaum, Hannah Sondhelm, Erika Biloon and Ruth Stobin