Remembering FP author Ruth Kluger
The Feminist Press is deeply saddened to share that author and educator Ruth Kluger (1931–2020) has passed away. She was 89.
Photo by Daniel Anderson/UC Irvine
Feminist Press had the honor of publishing Kluger’s memoir Still Alive in 2001, in which she recounted her childhood in Nazi-era Europe in unsparing detail. By age eleven, she was deported, along with her mother, to Theresienstadt, the first in a series of concentration camps that would become the setting of her precarious childhood. Kluger’s story of her years in the camps and her struggle to establish a life after the war as a refugee survivor in New York has emerged as one of the most powerful accounts of the Holocaust.
“A startling, clear-eyed, and unflinching examination of growing up as a Jewish girl during the Holocaust,” shared Publishers Weekly in a starred review of the book. “A deeply moving and significant work that raises vital questions about cultural representations of the Holocaust and searches for what it means to be a survivor.”
In 1947 Kluger emigrated to the United States and studied English literature in New York and German literature at UC Berkeley. Kluger obtained a master’s degree in 1952 and a PhD in 1967. She worked as a college professor of German literature at Case Western Reserve, University of Kansas, University of Cincinnati, University of Virginia, Princeton, and UC Irvine.
“My love for Ruth's writing predates my time at the Press,” writes executive director Jamia Wilson. “In 2001 I wrote her a fan letter and felt honored when she responded. It meant the world to me that a writer whose prose cut deeply into my soul took the time to correspond with an unknown college student with compassion and generosity. When I shared this anecdote with FP founder Florence Howe, she was not surprised that Ruth responded with kindness and solidarity. I’m grateful to both of these women whose courage and commitment to truth blazed trails for me and many others.”
We are deeply grateful for Kluger’s commitment to the promotion of freedom of expression and social justice. The literary and feminist communities will mourn the loss of Kluger’s singular voice and talent.
To learn more about Kluger, we highly recommend reading her memoir:
Ruth Kluger
A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered