Out of Hiding: A Holocaust Survivor's Journey to America

Gruener, Ruth. Out of Hiding: A Holocaust Survivor's Journey to America. 2020. 194p. ISBN 978-1-338-62745-9. Available at FIC GRU on the library shelves.

Luncia was an only child born in Poland to a Jewish family, and when the Nazis invaded the country, she and her family found themselves the target of violent antisemitic attacks. Soon forced into a ghetto, Luncia escaped and was housed by a family friend of her father, before being reunited with her family. With her mother and father hiding from the Germans, they managed to avoid capture and emerged in 1945 with a defeated Germany.

With the world around them in rubble, and with people still hostile to Jews, Luncia and her family soon became part of the largest movement of displaced persons in history. After applying for American visas and being granted access, the family left on a ship in 1948 and crossed the Atlantic, where they were reunited with her father's siblings, who had left Poland before the war. 

Settling in New York, Luncia, who changed her name to Ruth, was also reunited in New York with Jack Gruener, a fellow Polish Jew who had also survived the war and whom she had met in Europe. Jack had come to the United States only to go to Korea to fight in the Korean War, and when he returned the two of them were soon married. They never forgot the Holocaust, however, and even today Ruth continues to talk with people who believe it didn't happen.

Though the first part of the book is focused on surviving the Holocaust, the rest of the book powerfully describes the impacts the Holocaust had on Ruth's life and that of her family. Pictures at the end of the book help provide context to some of the situations described.