Ruth Jackson: Photo on the right: the house where RJ was born
Ruth Jackson: August 2004
Ruth Jackson: Jewish passport. "My Jewish identity card made out in April 1939
Ruth Jackson: Child's passport reverse
Ruth Jackson: Child's visa
Ruth Jackson: Cross letter from my mother in 1943
Ruth Jackson: August 2004
Ruth Jackson: Child's passport
Ruth Jackson
Ruth Jackson was born Ellen-Ruth Werner in Eberswalde, Brandenburg, Germany on 13 June 1926
Born: 1926
Place of Birth: Eberswalde
Arrived in Britain: 27/07/2039
Interview Number: 69 (N)
Experiences: Kindertransport
Interview Summary
Ruth Jackson was born Ellen-Ruth Werner in Eberswalde, Brandenburg, Germany on 13 June 1926. Her father was Jewish and her mother converted. Her mother’s maiden name was Hill (but no known English ancestors). Her parents came from Berlin to Eberswalde in the early 1920s. Her father was a chartered accountant who worked for a local Town hall and big Insurance Companies in Berlin. In 1933 he was thrown out of the Town Hall. He moved back to Berlin. Ruth was thrown out of local school and attended Theodor Herzl School. She was sent on the Kindertransport in July 1939 and attended St Christopher’s School, Letchworth and Westhill College, Birmingham. Her Father had a lethal injection in the Jewish Hospital, Berlin 1942. Her mother and sister hid and survived. Ruth married Alan Jackson (also German refugee) in 1946, and had 3 children. They founded several nursery schools.
Place of Birth
For the Nazis, you didn’t have to do anything wrong, you just had to be Jewish.
I remember this friend I used to go to school with, who lived around the corner, called Naomi. Now they were very, very Orthodox. To the extreme. Well, we used to think it quite ridiculous, because I’d come home from school with her on a Friday and she’d say, you can come and play, but you’ve got to help me because I’ve got to tear up all the toilet paper, because they weren’t allowed to tear anything on a Saturday. And I thought, you know, I really thought this was ridiculous. And all sorts of little things. All the lights had to be switched on, or the neighbour came and did all the cooking for them and my father was always quoting ‘Thou shalt not work, nor thy maid, nor thy manservant’. And what were they doing, and they were doing just that so he didn’t hold with any of that. But Naomi looked very, very Jewish, Semitic, shall we say, rather than Jewish and coming home from school from the station we’d have bricks thrown at us by youth– Hitler Youth boys. And that frightened me and I remember coming home and really being very upset, and my mother tried to calm me down, and I said, I don’t think I’ll go home with Naomi any more. And I felt a traitor, really. Because here was my friend, and I didn’t like to go home with her any more, I was looking after my own safety. And I used to make excuses and go home a different way, or go to school a bit earlier, on an earlier train, but I still went to her house to play with her. But I really didn’t feel comfortable with myself.
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