My Voice: Ruth Edwards

Ruth Edwards was born in 1926 in Vienna. She experienced life in Austria as Hitler came to power, with new laws that increasingly restricted everyday life for Jews. In November 1938, in the horror of Kristallnacht, Ruth’s father was taken away to Dachau concentration camp. Even though it meant separation from her mother, Ruth’s family arranged for her to join her great-uncle and his family in England in 1939.

Ruth describes her experience of being evacuated during the war and the many letters she wrote to keep in touch with her parents, who unfortunately perished. After the war, she worked in a factory and met her husband Sidney, also a refugee from Vienna. They settled in Manchester, raising their three children and working together in the handbag trade.

Ruth’s book is part of the My Voice book collection, a stand-alone project of The Fed, the leading Jewish social care charity in Manchester, dedicated to preserving the life stories of Holocaust survivors and refugees from Nazi persecution who settled in the UK. The oral history, which is recorded and transcribed, captures their entire lives from before, during and after the war years. The books are written in the words of the survivor so that future generations can always hear their voice. The My Voice book collection is a valuable resource for Holocaust awareness and education.