Ruth Fischel correspondence

Ruth Wangenheim Fischel was born on June 28, 1898 in Berlin, Germany. She married Siegmund Fischel (born March 26, 1895 in West Prussia) in February 1923. They had three children: Siegbert, Manfred, and Mignon. In 1939, the Fischels sent their children to live with relatives in the Netherlands and, in May 1940, obtained permits to go to Shanghai. Ruth and Siegmund arrived in Shanghai on July 21, 1940. They were able to correspond with their family until late 1941. After the war, they learned that their eldest son Siegbert, had been deported to Auschwitz and had perished. Ruth's mother, Emma Wangenheim, perished in Theresienstadt. Ruth and Siegmund heard that Manfred and Mignon had been deported to Sobibor, but held out hope for their survival until March 1948, when they were informed by the Red Cross their children had been killed in Sobibor. Ruth and Siegmund, who had been able to immigrate to Australia in 1947, were able to leave for the United States, where Ruth had distant relatives. They arrived in San Francisco in March 1949 and in New York in May 1949.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Lee Rubin

Lee Rubin donated the correspondence her grandmother, Hermine Asher Schwartz, received from Ruth Fischel to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2014.