My name is Ruth Hermann.  I was born on June 10, 1927 in Stuttgart Germany to Itzhak and Martha (nee Ausubel) Fortgang.   I had an older brother who was three years older than me and his name was Hermann.  Our family lived on Marienplaz in Stuttgart.   My family practiced orthodox Judaism.  My father Itzhak worked as an accountant in a department store in Stuttgart.  My parents Itzhak and Martha were first cousins.  My maternal grandparents also lived in Stuttgart. 

My brother Hermann was a very good athlete.  Hermann attended the local gymnasium.   I attended the Jewish Day school.   My grandparents lived near my Jewish Day School. 

Shortly after Kristellnacht, my father Itzhak and brother were deported to Poland.  My motherand I moved in with my maternal grandparents.   Several months later my father and brother returned to Stuttgart. 

I lived in Stuttgart Germany until the 1938.   In 1938, when I was 11, I was put on the  Kindertransport.  The Kindertransport was the informal name of a series of rescue efforts which brought thousands of refugee Jewish children to Great Britain from Nazi Germany.  The organizations that arranged the Kindertransport often favored children whose emigration was urgent because their parents were in concentration camps or were no longer able to support them. 

Once I arrived in Great Britain, I lived at the Sunshine House, a home for Kindertransport children, in London from 1938 until 1945 or 1946.  The home “parents” were a young orthodox couple named the Vansons.  While I lived at the Sunshine House, I attended trade school where I was trained to become a dressmaker. 

When I was living at the Sunshine House, I corresponded with one of my aunts and one of my uncles, both of whom emigrated to the United States.  Sadly, I eventually learned that my parents and brother were transported to Theresienstadt and then to Auschwitz.  My aunt and uncle sponsored me to come to the United States.   Upon leaving the Sunshine House, I moved to New York to reunite with my uncle, aunt and several cousins.  I met my husband Fred Hermann at a wedding in New York in 1948.   Fred and I married in 1949.