Ruth Minsky Sender / Riva Minska (F / Poland, 1926), Holocaust survivor
Ruth Minsky Sender / Riva Minska (F / Poland, 1926), Holocaust survivor.
- KEYWORDS : <Poland> <Lodz Ghetto> various camps
- MEMOIRS : The Cage (1986) -- To Life (1988) -- The Holocaust Lady (1999)
Biography
Rifkele Riva Minska was born May 3, 1926 in Łódź, Poland to Avromele and Nacha Minska. She was the fourth of seven children. Their father died shortly before the war.
When the Germans invaded Poland, Riva's older siblings fled to Russia to escape forced labor. Riva, her mom and younger siblings were forced to live in the Lodz Ghetto. On September 10, 1942, their mother was taken out of the ghetto during a Nazi raid, leaving Riva to care for her younger brothers. At the liquidation of the Ghetto, they were sent to Auschwitz. Only Riva survived. She was transported to a labor camp in Mittelsteine, and then at Grafenort for the remainder of the war. The camp was liberated by Russian forces.
Rivka moved to the United States of America and started a family.
Book : The Cage (1986)
- The Cage (Macmillan, 1986)
"After Riva’s mother was taken away by the Nazis, Riva and her younger brothers were left to cling to their mother’s brave words to help them endure life in the Lodz ghetto. Then the family is rounded up, deported to Auschwitz, and separated. Now Riva is alone ... At Auschwitz, and later in the work camps at Mittlesteine and Grafenort, Riva vows to live, and to hope—for Mama, for her brothers, for the millions of other victims of the nightmare of the Holocaust. And through determination and courage, and unexpected small acts of kindness, she does live. And this unforgettable memoir of love, strength, and survival is her story."-- Publisher description.
Book : To Life (1986)
- To Life (Macmillan, 1986)
""WE ARE FREE!" ... When Russian soldiers liberate Grafenort, the Nazi labor camp where she is a prisoner, nineteen-year-old Riva discovers that liberation doesn't mean the end of her hardship and suffering ... Cold and starving, threatened with rape by the same Russian soldiers who were her saviors, Riva makes her way to her old home in Poland, searching like so many others for family who may have survived. Strengthened by her mother's credo, as long as there is life, there is hope, and by the promise of a new love and a new life, Riva endures the long years of waiting for real freedom and a real home ... Picking up where her acclaimed memoir The Cage leaves off, Ruth Minsky Sender has written another inspirational document of the power of hope and love over unspeakable cruelty."--Publisher description.
Book : The Holocaust Lady (1999)
- The Holocaust Lady (Macmillan, 1999)
"The sequel to The Cage and To Life continues Sender's account of her struggle to build a new life in America, her battle to cope with her horrific memories of the Holocaust, her decision to tell her story, and her career as a teacher of Jewish history."--Publisher description.