Ruth David family photograph

A photograph that belonged to Holocaust survivor Ruth David. It shows Ruth's elder half-brother, Ernest, taken in the family's garden in Fränkisch-Crumbach, Germany. Ernest was the son of Ruth's father, Moritz, and his first wife Klara. Moritz had been left with three young children after Klara died due to a failed operation in the early nineteen twenties. Ruth's father remarried and wed Margarete, Ruth's mother. Ernest is pictured here typically well-dressed, Ruth remembers friendly teasing by the family of him as he never wore casual clothing. On the 10 November 1938, Ernest was taken with Ruth's father to a tiny jail in Fränkisch-Crumbach, and the next day they were sent to Buchenwald Concentration Camp. Ernest was held in Buchenwald for two weeks, then allowed home which left him able to escape to New York.

Ruth David was born Ruth Luise Oppenheimer in 1929 in Fränkisch-Crumbach near Frankfurt, Germany. Ruth grew up in a busy household with many siblings. After the Nazis came to power, their life became increasingly difficult. Her father had to sell their house and eventually his business was confiscated. During the November Pogrom the Oppenheimers were severely attacked. Since it was impossible to leave as a family, the parents now started to look for ways to get at least the children to safety. Ruth was sent to England on the Kindertransport in 1939. Whilst all her siblings survived either through emigration or in hiding, both her parents were murdered in Auschwitz in 1942.