Ruth Jacobsen (8 April 1932 - 19 February 2019) was a German-born lesbian artist and a Hidden Child of the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, she fled with her parents to the Netherlands where she was hidden by the Dutch resistance until she was reunited with her parents towards the end of the war. Traumatized by the war, her parents both committed suicide. In 1953, she emigrated to the United States to stay with distant family and there became a textiles designer. Working as the first female film projectionist in New York, she helped create a training program for women entering that profession. Jacobsen increasingly devoted her time to art using family letters and photographs in order to cope with her childhood traumas. She is remembered in particular for her collage works centred on the

Biography

Born in Frankenburg, Germany, on 8 April 1932, Ruth Jacobsen was the daughter of Walter Jacobsen and his wife Paula. Faced with the persecution of the Jews by the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

s, the family fled to the Netherlands in 1939, settling in the village of

Oud-Zuilen Oud-Zuilen is a village in the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is a part of the municipality of Stichtse Vecht, and lies about 4 km northwest of Utrecht. It is in an area called the "Vechtstreek". Zuylen Castle is located in the village. Histo ...

. In 1942, relying on the assistance of the Dutch resistance, they were forced into hiding but two months later Ruth Jacobsen was hidden away from her parents in various Christian families. She was reunited with her parents at the end of the war but, traumatized by their experiences, both committed suicide. In 1953, Ruth emigrated to the United States where she lived with distant relatives. After first working as textile designer, she became the first woman to be employed as a film projectionist in New York City. She devoted her spare time to developing her artistic talents, concentrating on collage works. These centred on the Holocaust, the 1980s AIDS crisis and

indigenous rights Indigenous rights are those rights that exist in recognition of the specific condition of the Indigenous peoples. This includes not only the most basic human rights of physical survival and integrity, but also the rights over their land (includ ...

. On her retirement she turned to art, creating many art works and collages compiled with items she found in letters and photographs which had been saved by a Christian family living in Germany. It was reported that thanks to her writing and artwork she was able to reclaim herself. Ursula Hegi, a German-born novelist and Holocaust specialist, commented: "Her legacy is significant, certainly to her life but beyond that to world history, evoking the legacy of another child hidden in Holland —

Anne Frank Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank (, ; 12 June 1929 – )Research by The Anne Frank House in 2015 revealed that Frank may have died in February 1945 rather than in March, as Dutch authorities had long assumed"New research sheds new light on Anne Fra ...

, who gave the world the girl’s perspective of the hidden child... Ruth Jacobsen gives us both the girl's perspective and the woman's perspective." Her book ''Rescued Images'' (2001) is based on a series of collages from photographs in an old family album. Her devastating childhood is brought back to life, reviving memories she had long suppressed. Ruth Jacobsen died in

Southampton, New York Southampton, officially the Town of Southampton, is a town in southeastern Suffolk County, New York, partly on the South Fork of Long Island. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the town had a population of 69,036. Southampton is included in the stret ...

on 19 February 2019. She had lived there for more than three decades with her wife Christine Epifania who died in 2017. Jacobsen's papers are in the collection of the

Center for Jewish History The Center for Jewish History is a partnership of five Jewish history, scholarship, and art organizations in New York City: American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute New York, Yeshiva University Museu ...

. A 1992 oral history by Jacobsen is in the

U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust his ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacobsen, Ruth 1932 births 2019 deaths Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States American collage artists 20th-century American women artists 21st-century American women writers Lesbian Jews 21st-century American women artists American lesbian artists