Nothing Could Stop Her: The Courageous Life of Ruth Gruber
I had two tools to fight injustice words and images my typewriter and my camera I just felt that I had to fight evil and I've felt like that since I was twenty years old And I've never been an observer I have to live a story to write it Ruth Gruber 00
Chapter 1 Brooklyn Ruth Gruber was born in 1911 in what she called a shtetl a village the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn New York Her parents David and Gussie were from Russia Ruth was the fourth of their five children She had two older brothers Bob and Harry and an older sister Betty Her youngest brother Irving was born in 1916 when Ruth was five and a half years old The family lived in a small apartment above the liquor store that her father owned Ruth was a curious child who wanted to learn as much as possible about everything she saw and heard She would sit on the curb watching tired horses pull wagons filled with fruit and vegetables She'd listen to the calls of street peddlers Every day a tall man carried blocks of ice in huge iron claws up the stairs for the icebox in the Grubers apartment On his way down he would give little Ruth a piece of ice which she sucked as she watched the people on Moore Street go about their business NOTHING COULD STOP HER 8
9 CE LIQUOR STORE Because everyone she knew was Jewish Ruth thought the whole world was Jewish Moore Street smelled of briny pickles in big barrels roasted sweet potatoes and candy apples People greeted each other in Yiddish Ruth loved Fridays when the house smelled of freshly baked challah and almond cookies At dusk her mother lit the Shabbos candles and the family gathered around the dinner table On Saturdays the street was quiet no horses or peddlers Most stores BROOKLYN
