NEW YORK (AP) - When Ruth Gruber saw a report during World War II that 1,000 Jewish refugees were being brought to the United States, she rushed straight to her job with the Secretary of the Interior. "I
got rid of my breakfast and rushed to the office and said, 'I have to
see the Secretary.' I told him, 'Somebody has to go over and hold their
hands; they're going to be terrified,'" Gruber said in a 2010 interview
in The Sunday Telegraph of London. That somebody turned out to be her, and as she accompanied the refugees to the U.S., she interviewed them, which became the basis of "Haven: The Dramatic Story of 1,000 World War II Refugees and How They Came to America," one of her many books but only one part of Gruber's long, trailblazing life. The journalist and humanitarian died on Thursday at her home in Manhattan, according to her editor, Philip Turner. She was 105. Gruber,
who was born in Brooklyn, started college at New York University at age
15 and had earned a Ph.D. from the University of Cologne in Germany by
the time she was 20. Her dissertation was on Virginia Woolf, whom she
later met. Gruber then went into journalism, becoming a foreign
correspondent and visiting places including the Soviet Arctic and
Siberia. She produced both words and photographs. During World War
II, she was appointed special assistant to Secretary of the Interior
Harold Ickes, for whom she carried out a study to see if returning
veterans could settle in Alaska. In 1944, Gruber got involved in a mission to bring a group of 1,000 Jewish refugees from Europe to the United States. She lobbied fiercely for the refugees to be given American citizenship, which they eventually were granted. She returned to journalism after the war, covering stories such as the plight of other Jewish refugees and the impetus to allow some to settle in what was then Palestine. "I
thought that wherever there was injustice we should fight it, and what
better tool than journalism? I always carried my little Hermes
typewriter that weighed about two pounds and my two cameras," she said
in the Sunday Telegraph interview. She was honored with awards from organizations including the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance. Gruber married twice; both of her husbands died before her. She is survived by her son and daughter from her first marriage. ___ Associated Press writer Hillel Italie in New York contributed to this report. Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.
Page created on 11/22/2016 12:00:00 AM
Last edited 11/22/2016 12:00:00 AM