Synopsis "Fleeing Toward Freedom (in English)"
Ruth Rosenstock-Michel, born in 1928 in Königsberg, East Prussia on the Baltic Sea, belongs to that group of people whom the Nazis relentlessly hunted and persecuted. Her dramatic story of survival is not an account of the horrors in concentration camps, but of the struggles of a family fleeing forward to freedom and peace. Her tale will stir the heart of every reader. She wrote this book in order to give a voice to the tortured and murdered Jews and hopes that voice will be heard through this translation. The story begins when Ruth is six and her Jewish father moves her Christian mother, Ruth and her younger sister to the Polish village of Mikuliczyn in the Carpathian forest region, [now located in Ukraine]. Though baptized a Christian, Ruth identifies with her father's and his mother's Jewish faith. In Mikuliczyn she experiences the Russian Army's takeover in 1939 and the German occupation in 1941. Resulting events and circumstances force Ruth to realize she needs to assume responsibility for the family and when her father is forced to hide, Ruth must take charge of finding food for all of them. In December, 1941, her father, along with all the other Jewish residents of the town, is captured, taken into a forest between Mikuliczyn and Tatarow, shot in the back of the neck, and dumped into a pit. When the family's house in Mikuliczyn is lost in a flood, Ruth recognizes the approaching imminent danger and helps her mother and sister escape from the ensuing Nazi raids. On their long journey back to Königsberg, the three labor in factories at various points, while hiding in homes or shanties. With help from sympathizers and what Ruth constantly describes as luck, they eventually make it back to Königsberg, only to experience the horrors of the final days of WWII. She meets a young friend in Königsberg and together they strive to survive the bombings and eventually plan an escape to the West. It is miraculous and inspiring how Ruth Rosenstock, a young girl, stands up to the evils of wartime, faces the enemy, and lives through the bombing of Königsberg. In spite of the immense sorrow she sees and experiences, she never loses faith in herself or in her determination to survive.
