Krell
This year I’m writing an article for my Alma Mater, UHCL- The University of Houston Clear Lake on Yom HaShoah.
This year, I’m going with the survivors perspective, rather than the victims, as I usually write about. Survivors are getting less and less, and I’m trying to write and interview as many as I possibly can. I have written to Ruth Krell Steinfeld. She lives not too far from me and I saw her story in a documentary. When I saw she was local, I knew I had to jump at this opportunity .
I wrote her a letter, because why wouldn’t I? As a researcher, I’m always looking for people to interview. When the opportunity came up to talk to Ruth Krell Steinfeld, I took it. She lovingly replied to my letter, so I wrote back. I hope to meet her soon because we live so close and I would be happy to take her to lunch or dinner? It depends on how comfortable she is with me.
Ruth was born On July 8, 1933 in Germany. As she said in her Testimony she couldn’t be a citizen of Germany, as the Nazis already took power by the time she was born.
She was sent to the internment camp, GURS in October of 1940. When she was staying there, a group called OSE (Oeuvres de Secours aux Enfants) managed to convince their mother to let them take Ruth and her sister Lea (who was then 8, Ruth was 7) out of the camp to be saved. Ruth did not want to leave her mother, but her mother said that they would see each other again. Truth was, she was not sure she would see her daughters again. Ruth said “The last thing I remember about my mother was seeing her waving to me, when I was on the bus and that was the last time I saw my mother”.
Ruth and Lea were placed in the Chapol’s home. They were farmers and had a daughter of their own. They gave the girls new names and new identities. They were posing as non-Jews and everything seemed fine, until the preacher of the town and the other townsmen suspected them of being Jewish. They were not in the town of Le-Chambon.
When they were placed in another orphanage they stayed there till the end of the war.
In 1946, Ruth’s grandpa, Jacob Kupunstein saw an ad about his granddaughters and made the arrangements for them to come to the states. They arrived in New York and then he died six months later. They were then placed with their aunt and uncle. They weren’t happy there. In 1949, when a Jewish relief organization gave them the opportunity to move, they took it. They picked Houston, Texas. They picked Houston because they wanted to see Cowboys.
There, they both married, and raised families.
Ruth and Lea were among the first survivors in Houston to talk about their experiences.
While living here, Ruth opened a Salon and was very successful. She was awarded the French Legion award, France’s highest honor.
In 1981, she and her sister were invited to go Israel. From that time on she had no idea what happened to her parents, until she was given a book with all the names of the Jews in France, and in the book, she saw her parents named and saw where they had been murdered : Auschwitz.
She was on the board of the Houston Holocaust Museum.
She’s 88 years old and still lives in Houston.
