Ruth Schütz Uzrad (F / Germany, 1925-2015), Holocaust survivor

Ruth Schütz Uzrad (F / Germany, 1925-2015), Holocaust survivor

Betty Schütz Bloom (F / Germany, 1930), Holocaust survivor

• KEYWORDS : <Children of La Hille> -- <Germany> -- <Refugees, Belgium> <Home General Bernheim> -- <Refugees, France> <Seyre> <Chateau de La Hille> <Partisans> -- <Refugees, Spain> <Refugees, Palestine>

• MEMOIRS : A Girl Called Renée (1997)

Biography

Ruth (Schutz) Uzrad was born March 31, 1925 in Berlin, the eldest of three daughters, to a religious Jewish family. After the arrest of her father by the Gestapo, Ruth's mother sent 13 year-old Ruth and her two younger sisters out on their escape route across Europe by train to the safety of Belgium. Later, when the Nazis conquer Belgium, Ruth and one of her sisters escape to France, leaving the youngest sister behind to be taken in by a Belgian foster family. From 1940 to 1943, Ruth and her sister lived at the Chateau de La Hille at Montégut-Plantaurel, France.

After the Summer 1942, the situation had become precarious with the beginning of the deportations. In 1943 Ruth joined the Jewish underground movement in France and took on a false identity and a new name, Renee. Betty was smuggled to safety in Switzerland.

As an underground fighter, Ruth participates in special operations aimed at rescuing Jews in danger. When the German police set out to arrest her, she manages to cross the border into Spain and eventually makes her way to Israel in 1945, where she makes her home and spends the rest of her life. In Israel she became a pioneer and founder of a new kibbutz on the conflict-ridden northern border, in close proximity to Syria. In later years, she studied nursing and became the kibbutz nurse. Together with her husband, David, she raised four sons. She passed away in 2015 at the age of 90, leaving behind a large family, including many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.