Ruth Rappaport was an avid reader. When the Nazis took power in 1933, they began to target
many of Ruth's favorite books.
That spring, university students from Nazi clubs began burning works they considered to be "un-German," including writings by Jewish authors, pacifist texts, and books the Nazis opposed politically. In her hometown of Leipzig, Ruth "saw the piles of books on the street in the middle of the road there being burned."
Even though it became increasingly dangerous to possess certain works, Ruth kept reading them in secret. Among her favorite authors were Max Brod and Leon Trotsky. The Nazis burned books by both men.
Ruth even shared books among friends in her youth group. "What we did was we passed around the paperbacks. We read them, and as we finished reading, we tore off the pages and destroyed them so we wouldn’t get caught."
As the situation for Jews worsened in Nazi Germany, Ruth took refuge in books. She eventually fled to Switzerland and later immigrated to the United States, where she worked as a librarian for the Library of Congress.
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