Ruth "Tutti" Fishman
Biography
Ruth “Tutti” (Lichtenstern) Fishman was born in Cologne, Germany, on July 17, 1935. As a nine-month-old baby she traveled to Amsterdam with her parents (Heinz and Margret Lichtenstern) along with both sets of grandparents. Her brother Robbie was born in 1938. In 1942 Ruth attended an all-Jewish school in Amsterdam where she began to feel the difference of being Jewish as laws were enacted to govern what the Jews could and could not do. The Jews of Amsterdam were required to display stars, allowed to consult Jewish physicians only, and subjected to other restrictions to separate the Jews from the general population.
Under the German occupation, her family was concentrated into the “Amsterdam East” ghetto. Originally her family was able to escape the roundups to deport Jews to concentration camps because of her father’s work in the metal industry, but eventually in 1943 they responded to a summons and were moved to a theatre in Amsterdam filled with many other Jews. They were all transported to the Westerbork Concentration Camp, a transit camp for Jews to eventually be deported to their deaths in occupied Poland. All adults were required to work at the camp. Her mother worked in the laundry center and her father continued his work in the metal industry, which allowed him to move about more freely. Children were dropped off at a communal location while their parents were at work. In the final weeks of their stay at Westerbork, Ruth's father gave her a doll with a hollow head with money hidden within, with instructions to safeguard the doll, which could be used for bribes or food.
In September 1944, Ruth and her family were transported via cattle car to Theresienstadt, a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia near Prague. The cattle cars had "one little window for air, straw on the floor, a lot of people, and in the middle of the wagon was a beer barrel for the bathroom leaving no room for privacy." For eight months, Ruth and her family were subject to the worsening conditions of Theresienstadt. Men and women were separated and forced to sleep in barracks on triple bunk beds. Even the children (aged 9 and up) were expected to work, and Ruth was responsible for picking up the food rations, which were much worse than the food in Westerbork, as well as sending and delivering messages in the hospital. In late October 1944, her maternal grandparents, Flora and Louis Spier, were deported from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz, where they were murdered.
The camp was liberated by Soviet troops on May 9, 1945. Following liberation, Ruth and her family were overcome with a feeling of not belonging anywhere because they were stateless. "They had to ship the Swedes back to Sweden, the Danes back to Denmark, and so on. We did not belong anywhere because we were not really Dutch." After six weeks of traveling from the Czech Republic to Amsterdam, Ruth’s family discovered upon arrival that they were homeless. Her father's friend, who was supposed to watch their property, turned out to be a Nazi collaborator and had stolen their valuables, leaving them with nothing. However, they worked to slowly rebuild their lives.
During the Korean War, Heinz Lichtenstern feared the outbreak of another world war. He decided to move the family to Brazil where the metal trading company had another branch. Ruth attended an American school in Brazil and was finally able to move to the United States when she was eighteen. Ruth now lives in West Hartford, Connecticut, has three children, seven grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
herocenter@ctvoicesofhope.org | 20 Waterside Drive, Suite 100, Farmington, CT 06032 | 860.470.5591