Who Do You Think You Are - Ruby Wax 4th Oct

[kiterunner]

At 8 p.m. on BBC1. And repeated on Sunday at 4:45 p.m.

[Guinevere]

Very moving.

[ElizabethHerts]

I found this totally heart-wrenching.

[maggie_4_7]

Wow no wonder they left this until the last.Cried my heart out.

I like Ruby always have, I now understand her more.

[Olde Crone]

I cannot stand her at any price but I thought this was by far the most interesting programme of the series. I would have thought though, that any Jewish person would have wondered how their family had fared during Ww2.

OC

[Guinevere]

Ruby has said before that her parents were complicated and emotionally and physically abusive. That's why she came to the UK.

If only they had talked to her about the truth of their going to the USA. So sad for her to discover so late that her mother loved her father. So sad to discover the "madness" in the family after so many years of therapy and depression.

[Just Gillian]

Very sad one!

I didn't know anything about Ruby Wax other than the fact that she had a history of depression. She mentioned that both her parents were monsters. Did her father have mental health problems too?

[Guinevere]

Her father beat her and her mother.

[sonsteam]

ever seen the jerry springer wdytya on the bbc. sorry cant' recall what series it was but it even made me shivver when I saw it

[Just Gillian]

Her father beat her and her mother.

Thanks Gwynne.

[Olde Crone]

It did irritate me that she seemed to have no perception that her parents both had mental health problems. She repeatedly called them monsters, when in fact it was their behaviour which was monstrous and she of ALL people should have been able to wonder what was behind that. Not forgive it necessarily, but acknowledge that it was beyond their control.

I also thought she slipped up when she said her parents had never discussed their flight from Vienna. When she was shown her mother's travel photo she remarked that the Nazi officers on the train had stood up because she looked so Aryan.

But a very well put together programme, all the more impressive for the matter of fact delivery. I just wish they'd left her out of it, lol! (Her and her shoes).

OC

[maggie_4_7]

I think when you are a child in an abusive and dysfunctional family the cause isn't something you can comprehend at that age.

When you grow up you don't want to revisit to find out the cause it is too painful and also you become that child all over again.

I am sure as Ruby's got older she has now come to realise things aren't as simple as one would imagine especially that she herself has suffered mental 'agitation' as she now calls it.

[ElizabethHerts]

I have no particular feelings of like or dislike towards Ruby Wax. However, I would imagine she had a very lonely, sad childhood as an only child of two dysfunctional adults. The resultant emotional scarring combined with a predisposition to mental health problems has had an obvious, deep detrimental effect on her. For that I feel great sympathy towards her. I thought she was struggling immensely during the filming of the programme.

[vita]

I too found it very moving. I spent most of the programme worrying about her as each

new revelation came. I know she said she was on medication & so didn't feel things as

acutely but I was still concerned about how it might effect her.

[kiterunner]

Episode summary:

Ruby Wax has three children, and lives in London with her husband. She was born in the USA and came to London when she was 18. Her parents, who were Jewish, emigrated to Chicago from Vienna in 1939. Ruby's parents never told her much about their lives in Vienna, but nearly 20 years ago, when Ruby was clearing out her parents' attic, she found the leather suitcase which her mother, Berta Wachs, nee Goldmann, brought with her from Austria, full of old documents and photographs. Ruby knew that her father, Edmund Wachs, had been imprisoned by the Nazis, and he had told her that he was an aerobics teacher in the prison. The papers in the suitcase included some postcards from when he was in prison, one of which showed the address of the prison.

Ruby went to the prison in Vienna where Edmund was held, and met an historian who told her that Edmund was held there for at least 2 months, having been arrested in April 1938, soon after the German annexation of Austria, because he was Jewish. The historian told Ruby that Jewish prisoners were tortured and beaten in the prison, and that the "aerobics" which Edmund mentioned would have been part of the torture. One letter from Edmund to a minister said that he was being released after about 2 months because he had signed a document promising to leave the country right away. He got a visa for Belgium and quickly married Berta. The historian showed Ruby a document giving Edmund's family's address, and listing him as a "merchant of intestines" (sausage skins). Ruby went to see an apartment in the block where Edmund lived, and she met another historian who had a document showing that Edmund left Vienna in September 1938 and went to Belgium, flying part of the way by plane, which was very expensive in those days. He had managed to put some money into a Belgian bank account, although Jews were not supposed to be able to take money out of Austria. Edmund stayed in Belgium for about a year. He had told Ruby that he stowed away on a ship to the USA, and this was born out by the records.

Berta had relatives in Chicago, and she too went to the USA via Belgium. Her visa was dated 16 Dec 1938, which was soon after Kristallnacht. Ruby went to see the synagogue where her parents married, at Templegasse in Vienna, but found out that it was destroyed on Kristallnacht.

Among the letters in Berta's suitcase were some from "Ella and Salo" dated about 1941, and Ruby wanted to find out who they were. She met a genealogist who showed her a family tree. Berta's parents were Richard Goldmann and Julia nee Neumann. Richard and his two sisters Gabriele and Olga Goldmann were the children of Salomon Boldmann. Ruby's great-aunt Gabriele married Salomon Birer, so they were Ella and Salo. A Vienna directory listed them as dental technicians. Gabriele was born in 1876 and her husband a few years before that. Ruby met an historian who had looked at Ella's letters and showed Ruby where the Birers lived and worked. The letters showed that they were learning English, hoping to follow Bertha to the USA. They needed an affidavit from Berta and Edmund to say they would be able to support them in the USA, but by the time they received it, the USA changed the rules and it became invalid. Then the US consulate in Vienna closed, and on the 23rd Oct 1941 the German Reich passed a law forbidding emigration, so Ella and Salo were stuck in Austria. Ruby searched the World Holocaust Remebrance Centre's website for Salomon and Gabriele Birer and found that they were deported with transport to Theresienstadt, now in the Czech Republic, in 1942, and both were killed there.

Ruby went to Theresienstadt and met an historian who showed her where the ghetto was. A document dated 29 Jun 1942 listed all the people who died there on 27 Jun, Salomon among them, just a week after his arrival. They couldn't find a record showing what happened to Gabriele. Many Jews died in the ghetto there, and many more were sent on to Treblinka and Auschwitz.

Richard and Olga both died before the war. Ruby went to the Central Cemetery in Vienna to find their graves. She found the gravestones of Richard and his father Salomon, and was shown where Olga's grave was, but there was no gravestone for her. Her "death card" from the archives dated 24 Feb 1933 showed her as category 5, i.e. poor with no family. The last address shown for her on the card was Am Steinhof psychiatric hospital. Ruby went there and met an historian who told her that Olga was a seamstress, and that before she was at Am Steinhof, she was a patient at the asylum in Brno, Moravia (now part of the Czech Republic). Because Olga was born in Brno she was initially sent there for treatment when she became ill in 1903, aged 24, and it took 5 years for her to be transferred back to Vienna. When she died she had been in institutions for 30 years.

Ruby went to the archives in Brno and met an archivist who had looked at the asylum records and found nothing about Olga, but had found records showing that Ruby's great-grandmother Bertha Goldmann (mother of Gabriele, Richard and Olga) was admitted to the asylum in 1884, and died there seven months later, age 31, of TB. A Vienna newspaper dated 21 Aug 1884 reported that Bertha had sold all her furniture and left her house, leaving a note saying that she was going to commit suicide. The children would have been aged about 9,7 or 8, and 6 at the time. Ruby went to visit the asylum where Bertha died.

[kiterunner]

Here are Ruby's father's naturalisation papers on ancestry:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/61196/007773870_00146/1608692?backurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ancestry.co.uk %2fcgi-bin%2fsse.dll%3fgst%3d-6&ssrc=&backlabel=ReturnSearchResults#?imageId=007773870_0 0146

Certificate of arrival (issued 1 Aug 1944):
Name: Edmund Wachs now Edward Wax
Port of entry: New York
Date: Aug 15, 1939
Manner of arrival: SS unknown.

Petition for naturalization, dated 19 Dec 1944:
Name Edmund Wachs, address 1517 Arthur Avenue, Chicago, Ill. Occupation: Sausage Casings. Age 35. Born 12 Nov 1908 in Lamberg, Poland. Nationality: Austrian (I became a citizen of Austria through my father's naturalization in Austria.) Wife's name Berta, married 28 Jul 1938 in Vienna. She was born in Vienna 11 Oct 1914 and entered the US at New York 2 May 1939 and was naturalized 26 Jul 1944 in Chicago. My last place of foreign residence was Antwerp, Belgium. Name [to] be changed to Edward Wax.
One of the witnesses is a Miss Margaret Neumann of Chicago - perhaps one of Berta's relatives?

And here they are in Chicago on the 1940 census (on FamilySearch):
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9MB-R8SQ?i=9&cc=2000219
Wax Edward Head 32 M born Poland, alien, salesman
Wax Bertha Wife 24 M born Austria, alien
Goldman Julie Mother in law 61 WD born Poland, alien

[kiterunner]

And Berta's naturalisation papers, with photo:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/61196/007787545_01322/302278?backurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ancestry.co.uk% 2fcgi-bin%2fsse.dll%3f_phsrc%3dCzj5847%26_phstart%3dsucc essSource%26usePUBJs%3dtrue%26db%3dnaranatsillinoi s%26so%3d2%26pcat%3dROOT_CATEGORY%26gss%3dangs-g%26new%3d1%26rank%3d1%26msT%3d1%26gsfn%3dbert*%26 gsfn_x%3d1%26gsln%3dwac%3fs%26gsln_x%3d1%26MS_AdvC B%3d1%26cpxt%3d1%26cp%3d12%26catbucket%3drstp%26MS AV%3d2%26uidh%3dvm5%26MSV%3d1&backlabel=ReturnSearchResults
Her occupation is Sales Lady.

[kiterunner]

This is Berta on the passenger list of the SS Pennland, sailing from Antwerp 22 Apr 1939:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/7488/NYT715_6323-0254/1004234317?backurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ancestry.co .uk%2fcgi-bin%2fsse.dll%3fdb%3dnypl%26so%3d2%26pcat%3d40%26g ss%3dangs-c%26new%3d1%26rank%3d1%26msT%3d1%26gsfn%3dbert*%26 gsfn_x%3d1%26gsln%3dwac%253fs%26gsln_x%3d1%26MS_Ad vCB%3d1%26cpxt%3d1%26cp%3d12%26catbucket%3drstp%26 MSAV%3d2%26uidh%3dvm5%26MSV%3d1&ssrc=&backlabel=ReturnSearchResults
Her mother Julia (Julie) was on the same ship but sailing 25 Sep 1939:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/7488/NYT715_6406-0486/1005866983?backurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ancestry.co .uk%2fcgi-bin%2fsse.dll%3fdb%3dnypl%26gss%3dsfs28_ms_r_db%26 new%3d1%26rank%3d1%26MS_AdvCB%3d1%26gsfn%3djul*%26 gsfn_x%3d1%26gsln%3dgoldman*%26gsln_x%3d1%26msbdy% 3d1879%26msbdy_x%3d1%26msbdp%3d5%26MSAV%3d2%26MSV% 3d1%26uidh%3dvm5&ssrc=&backlabel=ReturnSearchResults

[kiterunner]

And here are Julie Goldmann's naturalisation papers, also with photo (Ruby's grandmother):
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/61196/007786667_01687/481242?backurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ancestry.co.uk% 2fcgi-bin%2fsse.dll%3f_phsrc%3dCzj5855%26_phstart%3dsucc essSource%26usePUBJs%3dtrue%26db%3dnaranatsillinoi s%26so%3d2%26pcat%3dROOT_CATEGORY%26gss%3dangs-g%26new%3d1%26rank%3d1%26msT%3d1%26gsfn%3djul*%26g sfn_x%3d1%26gsln%3dgoldman*%26gsln_x%3d1%26msbdy_x %3d1%26msbdp%3d5%26MS_AdvCB%3d1%26msbdy%3d1879%26c pxt%3d1%26cp%3d12%26catbucket%3drstp%26MSAV%3d2%26 uidh%3dvm5%26MSV%3d1&backlabel=ReturnSearchResults

Julie born 8 Nov 1878 in Schaffa, Moravia, Czechoslovakia, married Richard 26 Nov 1913 in Vienna. He was born 8 Sep 1877 at Boskovitz, Czechoslovakia and died 13 Apr 1927. Berta their only child. Richard naturalized Austrian about 1910.

[Olde Crone]

Oh, I thought Edward went ahead of Berta! Didn't Ruby say something about him leaving her behind to her fate? Or did I misunderstand?

OC

[kiterunner]

I think he went to Belgium before her but she went to the US before him.

[Olde Crone]

Ah yes, thanks Kate.

OC