In Nazi Germany, Ruth was forced to leave school at 14, as no school would have her because she was Jewish. When she was 15, Ruth’s parents sent her to England. They knew of an Oxfordshire group helping Jewish families to escape the emerging horrors of Nazi Germany. A Christian family took her in.
Ruth, now 102, recalls: “As an only child, I was very happy to be part of a large family, who were so generous. One of the children, Martin was eight years younger than me and had a tree house. I was the only one who would climb up to have tea there and we became friends for the rest of our lives. The family also later sponsored my parents so they could escape Germany as war broke out.
Later my father worked in a shop in Oxford where he sold black-out material. When a new nun joined the local convent, they would ask Mr Cohen for black-out material for their uniforms. In return the nuns would occasionally bring butter from their trips back home to Ireland.
Female refugees could only do nursing or domestic work, so I trained and worked as a nurse. When I got married I moved to Birmingham and had a family. I have had a great life in Birmingham because of its go-ahead views. Wherever I have lived there has been a nice community with friendly and helpful people and it offers so much in art and education, music and religion. Living in Birmingham has given me a lot of possibilities, even in old age, to still be active. Until the pandemic I did a lot of work for the U3A, for my progressive synagogue and with the Council of Christian and Jews, as my experiences when younger with Christians was so good. And just this year I was the oldest person ever to have an operation at Birmingham's premier hospital for a TAVI heart valve. It was marvellous and I’m still here because of it.”
We Refugees
Benjamin Zephaniah 15 April 1958-7 Dec 2023
I come from a musical place
Where they shoot me for my song
And my brother has been tortured
By my brother in my land.
I come from a beautiful place
Where they hate my shade of skin
They don't like the way I pray
And they ban free poetry.
I come from a beautiful place
Where girls cannot go to school
There you are told what to believe
And even young boys must grow beards.
I come from a great old forest
I think it is now a field
And the people I once knew
Are not there now.
We can all be refugees
Nobody is safe,
All it takes is a mad leader
Or no rain to bring forth food,
We can all be refugees
We can all be told to go,
We can be hated by someone
For being someone.
I come from a beautiful place
Where the valley floods each year
And each year the hurricane tells us
That we must keep moving on.
I come from an ancient place
All my family were born there
And I would like to go there
But I really want to live.
I am told I have no country now
I am told I am a lie
I am told that modern history books
May forget my name.
We can all be refugees
Sometimes it only takes a day,
Sometimes it only takes a handshake
Or a paper that is signed.
We all came from refugees
Nobody simply just appeared,
Nobody's here without a struggle,
And why should we live in fear
Of the weather or the troubles?
We all came here from somewhere.
From Wicked World by Benjamin Zephaniah