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Ruth Barnett (Holocaust survivor)

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Holocaust survivor and educator
Ruth Barnett
Ruth Barnett in 2010Ruth Barnett in 2010
BornRuth Emma Clara Louise Michaelis
(1935-01-23)23 January 1935
Berlin, Germany
Occupation
  • Writer
  • Teacher
  • Holocaust educator
GenreHolocaust literature

Ruth Emma Clara Louise Barnett MBE (née Michaelis; born 23 January 1935), is a Holocaust survivor and educator.

Biography

Barnett was born in Berlin, Germany, to German citizens Robert Bernd Michaelis and Louise Marie Michaelis (Ventzke). Eight months later, under the Nuremberg Laws, she lost her German citizenship because her father was born Jewish. In 1939, at the age of four, she and her seven year old brother Martin travelled to Britain on the Kindertransport. The description "Person of no nationality" written into her British travel document remained with her until the age of 18, when she became eligible to apply for British citizenship. This description was later used as the title of her autobiographical account of her experiences, which was also translated into German in 2016.

Ruth attended several schools in England, but in interviews highlighted the impact of the period 1941 to 1943 as a boarding pupil at the Friends' School, Saffron Walden. She and her brother Martin attended the reunion in 1995 of the Friends' School pupils from the war years, and her story was recorded in the publication The School on the hill: memories of three hundred years of Friends' School, Saffron Walden, 1702–2002 edited by Hilary Riuth Halter in 2002 to celebrate the three hundredth anniversary of the founding of the school.

She studied at the University of Reading, where she met Bernard Raymond Barnett; they married in 1958. After working as a chemist in industry and as a teacher, where she wrote materials for a childcare course, Barnett became a psychotherapist, practising in London. Bertha Leverton, who had escaped Germany in the same way, organised a 50th anniversary reunion of Kindertransportees in London in June 1989. This brought together more than 1200 Kindertransportees and their families, from all over the world, and attending this event began the second phase of Barnett's activity.

As a first generation survivor of the Holocaust, Barnett began giving talks about her own experiences and the origins of other genocides. In her presentations and writing, she coined the term "genocide footprints", marks left by societies and individuals who fail to actively intervene to combat the precursors to genocide or who engage in denial after such events. Her writings on these topics include Jews and gypsies: myths and reality, a book that challenges the stereotypes and myths behind racism directed at Roma and Traveller Gypsies; the play What price for justice, examining the story of her father and his attempts to return to his role as a judge in an environment where former Nazi judges were able to sit in judgement over former Nazi victims returning to reclaim what they had lost; Quality and inequality: the value of life, exploring inequalities in the age of social media and information technology; and Why war?, a memoir about her parents and life in pre-war Berlin.

Barnett also contributed the article Therapeutic Aspects of Working Through the Trauma of the Kindertransport Experience to The Kindertransport to Britain 1938/39 (Yearbook of the Research Centre for German and Austrian Exile Studies, Volume: 13, 2012).

Barnett has contributed her story and reflections on genocide prevention in many different settings, including:

Her story has also appeared in books about the Kindertransport including I came alone by Bertha Leverton and Shmuel Lowensohn, The uprooted by Dorit Bader Whiteman, The Leaves Have Lost Their Trees by Dorothy Darke, and And the Policeman Smiled by Barry Turner.

Her work in Holocaust education was recognised with the award of an MBE in the 2020 New Years Honours list for services to Holocaust education and awareness.

References

  1. ^ Moss, Stephen (2018-11-08). "The Kindertransport children 80 years on: 'When I was 14, my mother appeared out of nowhere'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-07-05.
  2. ^ "Ruth Barnett". AJR Refugee Voices. Retrieved 2020-07-05.
  3. Barnett, Ruth (2010). Person of no nationality : a story of childhood loss and recovery. London: David Paul. ISBN 978-0-9548482-7-9. OCLC 457140068.
  4. Barnett, Ruth (November 2016). Nationalität: Staatenlos Die Geschichte eines Kindertransportes. Metropol-Verlag (1 Auflage ed.). Berlin. ISBN 978-3-86331-309-8. OCLC 956993479.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. Barnett, Ruth L. (1985). People making people : child development in context. London: Hutchinson. ISBN 0-09-154930-2. OCLC 12457420.
  6. Barnett, Ruth (2013). Jews and Gypsies : myths & reality. : CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN 978-1-4927-1850-5. OCLC 878017551.
  7. Barnett, Ruth (2019). WHY WAR?: …a memoir in honour of my parents - a Kindertransport tale. London: Mead-Hill. ISBN 978-1710642049.
  8. The kindertransport to Britain 1938/39 : new perspectives. Hammel, Andrea., Lewkowicz, Bea. Amsterdam: Rodopi. 2012. ISBN 978-94-012-0886-4. OCLC 834573723.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  9. "Ruth Barnett: interview – The Holocaust Explained: Designed for schools". Retrieved 2020-07-05.
  10. "Holocaust Educational Trust - Ruth Barnett MBE". www.het.org.uk. Retrieved 2021-06-23.
  11. "The day we left Hitler behind: Survivors of the Kindertransport tell". The Independent. 2013-12-04. Retrieved 2020-07-05.
  12. "Ex-child refugee says modern leaders are using migrants as pawns". www.expressandstar.com. Retrieved 2020-07-05.
  13. "Be vigilant — the message of the Kindertransport". www.churchtimes.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-07-05.
  14. I came alone : the stories of the Kindertransports. Leverton, Bertha., Lowensohn, Shmuel. Sussex, England: Book Guild. 1990. ISBN 0-86332-566-1. OCLC 27685723.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  15. Whiteman, Dorit Bader (1993). The uprooted : a Hitler legacy : voices of those who escaped before the "final solution". New York: Insight Books. ISBN 978-0-306-44467-8. OCLC 27150539.
  16. Darke, Dorothy Marie (1999). The leaves have lost their trees : the long term effects of a refugee childhood on ten German-Jewish children who escaped the Nazi regime. York. ISBN 1-85072-226-9. OCLC 59434201.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  17. Turner, Barry (1990). ... And the policeman smiled. London. ISBN 0-7475-0620-5. OCLC 59814940.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  18. Langlois, Andre (27 December 2019). "Fundraising and charity heroes recognised in the Queen's New Year Honours list". Kilburn Times. Retrieved 2020-07-05.
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