‘Respect Each Other’ – Holocaust Survivor Visits With Upper School Students to Share Remarkable Life Story

In a powerful and inspiring telling of a remarkable life story, students in the Upper School’s Holocaust and contemporary genocide course listened to a first-hand account of devastation, unthinkable loss and survival from the Nazi regime during World War II from a very special guest: St. Margaret’s grandparent Ruth Hermann.

 

The question-and-answer session took place in McGregor Family Theater and was moderated by Upper School assistant principal James Harris, who teaches the Holocaust and contemporary genocide class. About 30 students attended as well as several members of the professional community. 

 

Mrs. Hermann is the grandmother of Upper School student Carly Hermann and the mother of St. Margaret’s parent Ira Hermann. She was born in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1927, and at the age of 11 fled Nazi Germany as part of the Kindertransport program. She eventually settled in Great Britain as a Jewish refugee. 

 

She shared her harrowing story of being a Jewish child in Germany during the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime. She stoically recounted the vivid memory of her family being awakened in the middle of the night and her father and older brother, along with many other Jews, being arrested during Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) in November of 1938. Soon after, Mrs. Hermann’s mother arranged for her to take a train to Holland, where she then boarded a ship to London as part of the Kindertransport program. 

 

Though the Kindertransport program saved Mrs. Hermann’s life, the rest of her immediate family died in the Holocaust. She never saw them again.

 

The events of World War II and the Holocaust took a heavy toll on Mrs. Hermann, who said she did not talk about her experiences for a long time. 

 

“I felt strongly that if I closed that door, it would go away,” she said. “I did close the door, but it didn’t go away.”

 

She has since shared her story many times, and agreed to answer questions about her life with students studying the Holocaust and the Kindertransport program at St. Margaret’s. 

Mrs. Hermann agreed to speak to St. Margaret’s students a couple of years ago, but the pandemic postponed plans. Now 95 years old, she finally had a chance to speak to Upper School students studying the very historical events that so deeply affected her; and the students and educators in attendance felt  reverence and gratitude to Mrs. Hermann and her entire family. 

“We are so grateful to Ruth for sharing her amazing story and to the Hermann family for working to arrange her visit,” Mr. Harris said. “For our students to hear Ruth’s experiences and knowledge firsthand was a blessing and an honor they will never forget. Their understanding of antisemitism, the Holocaust, and the factors that allow genocide to occur was deepened in so many ways.”

Upper School students asked Mrs. Hermann many questions about her experiences, ranging from when exactly she felt unsafe in Germany, whether or not she knew of what was taking place in Nazi Germany while she lived in London, and her life after the Holocaust. 

 

After the war, Mrs. Hermann moved to the United States, where she married and started a family in New York. She has returned to Stuttgart twice as an adult, trips she described as “bittersweet.”

 

“I remembered all the good times and not-so-good times, but I found people were very accommodating and sorry for what happened,” Mrs. Hermann said. 

 

Mrs. Hermann recalled decades-old memories of her upbringing with clarity and great detail, moving those in attendance with her remarkable story. She hoped her life would inspire those to take away the same lessons of kindness and acceptance from her experiences that she learned. 

 

It was a message that resonated with the students in attendance. 

“After learning so much about the Holocaust and the Kindertransport, I thought to myself, ‘How could anyone be brave enough to endure all that and still have the urge to live and fight every day?’” Upper School senior Derek Smith said. “Meeting, talking to, and understanding a little bit of what Mrs. Hermann experienced was an enlightening experience that helped me gain a better understanding of not only how to maintain hope, but also what it means to be a kind and caring person.”

  

The Holocaust and contemporary genocide is a semester-long advanced history and social sciences elective course in the Upper School in which students engage in a comprehensive study of the events leading up to the Holocaust, the historical context of the Holocaust itself, and how it is relevant to contemporary society.