Gruber, Ruth (1911–)

views updated

Gruber, Ruth (1911–)

American journalist, photographer and lecturer. Name variations: Ruth Ellen Gruber. Born 1911 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; graduate of Oberlin College.

Did doctoral study in Cologne, Germany (1931); launched career as a journalist (1932); commissioned by New York Herald Tribune to write a series on women under communism and fascism; during WWII, was asked by Harold Ickes, secretary of the interior, to secretly escort a group of 1,000 Jewish refugees from Italy to America; escorted her group to Fort Ontario, near Oswego, NY, and, with much effort, effectively lobbied Congress to let them remain after the war; covered the tragic story of the refugee ship Exodus (1946); working for UPI, was a foreign correspondent in Rome, Brussels, London, Belgrade, Warsaw, and Vienna; writings include Upon the Doorposts of Thy House (1994) and Virtually Jewish.

See also tv series "Haven," starring Natasha Richardson (2001).