Ruth Maier was born in Austria, and she sought refuge in Norway from the Nazi regime.
She is often referred to as the “Anne Frank of Norway.” However, Ruth was quite an intriguing and unique woman. Her diary starts in 1933, and it lasts until 1942 when she is transported to Auschwitz and immediately gassed on arrival.
She wrote in her diary for nine years, and these documents show the shifts in her life and those around her. She wrote about her struggles as a Jewish woman, and her struggles to find her place in society. In her diary, she also writes about the deportations of Jews and their persecution.
Ruth’s struggle to understand the world at hand is prominent in the diary just as it is in other Holocaust-related diaries. Ruth had this to say: “We’ll only be rich when we understand that it’s not just we who are a race of martyrs. That beside us there are countless others suffering, who will suffer like us until the end of time… if we don’t… if we don’t fight for a better… Oh no! I’m too old, too tired to believe in this.” 