Ruth Minsky Sender

Ruth Minsky Sender is a Holocaust survivor. She has written three memoirs about her experience: "The Cage", "To Life" and "Holocaust Lady".

Biography

Early life

Riva Minska was born in Łódź, Poland to Avromele and Nacha Minska. She was the fourth of seven children: Chanele, Yankele, and Mala precede her; brothers Motele, Laibele, and Moshiele follow her. Avromele Minska passed away shortly after Moshiele's birth.

World War II

Following the invasion of Poland, Riva's older siblings fled to Russia to escape forced labor. Riva, her mother and younger siblings are forced to live in the Ghetto Litzmannstadt, where younger brother Laibele contracts tuberculosis. On September 10, 1942, their mother was taken out of the ghetto during a Nazi raid, leaving Riva to care for her younger brothers. She adopts them to keep the family together, which lasts until Laibele dies and Riva, Motele, and Moshiele are rounded up with the other remaining Jews in the ghetto and sent to Auschwitz. Riva and her brothers are separated at the gates.

After a week, Riva is transported to a labor camp in Mittelsteine. There she contracts blood poisoning from cutting her hand and is hospitalized, then deported to the labor camp at Grafenort for the remainder of the war. The camp is liberated by Russian forces.

Post-war

After liberation, Riva returned to Łódź with friends from the camp. They found their former homes occupied by people who had acquired the homes after the Jewish removal and decide to flee after learning that Jewish survivors of the camps are targets for murder. They stay in an abandoned apartment with other survivors; there Riva meets Moniek Senderowicz and the couple marries five weeks later.

The newlywed couple arranges to be smuggled to a displaced persons camp in Germany, where the couple gives birth to sons Laibele and Avromele. Also in the camp, Riva is reunited with her brother and two sisters (Mala, Chanele, and Yankele) and learns that the family's Russian relatives did not survive the war.

Afterward the family emigrates to the United States, where two more children, Chaim and Nachele, are born, and the family settles in Long Island. [cite news |first=Ruth Minsky |last=Sender |title=LONG ISLAND OPINION; A Survivor's Duty Is Not to Forget |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE7DD143BF934A15750C0A96E948260 |work=New York Times |date=1988-03-27 |quote=Ruth Minsky Sender lives in Commack. ]

Published works

*"The Cage" (Macmillan, 1986)
*"To Life" (Macmillan, 1988)
*"The Holocaust Lady" (Macmillan, 1992)

References