1939. A Jewish infant is plucked to safety from the terror of Nazi Berlin, just months before war breaks out. Surely in tranquil, pastoral Switzerland an idyllic refuge will be found? 

But it was not to be.

“I was four years old, and was told that the time had come for me to start helping around the house. Frau Steiger thrust a brush and dustpan into my hands and told me to sweep the stairs. I clutched the wooden brush in one hand and clumsily swept the dust into the dustpan held in my other hand, and then buffed the wood, feeling very proud of my accomplishments. But then Mutti came to inspect. ‘That’s no good! You didn’t sweep the corners!'”

***

Ruth Salomon was just two years old when she arrived in Switzerland together with dozens of other Jewish children, rescued from France shortly before it was conquered by Germany. And just two more years were left to her childhood before her life as unpaid drudge to the Steigers, the Christian family who took her in, began.

How did a young, mistreated Swiss orphan who didn’t even know she was Jewish emerge from the darkness to establish a large chassidish family in London?

Survivor without a Number is an unforgettable story of the strength of the human spirit, and the grandeur of the Jewish soul.

by Ruth Kusmierski