Ruth Maier - Biography

Ruth Maier (November 10, 1920 in Vienna, Austria - December 1, 1942 in Auschwitz, Poland) was an Austrian woman whose diaries describing her experiences of the Holocaust in Austria and Norway were published in 2007 to generally favorable reviews, leading her to be described as "Norway's Anne Frank."

Ruth Maier was born in Vienna to a largely assimilated Jewish family. Her father, Ludwig Maier, held a doctorate in philosophy, was a polyglot (mastering nine languages), and held a senior position within the Austrian post and telegraph service. He died in 1933 of erysipelas. Her first cousin, who survived the war, was the philosopher Stephan Körner.

Most of Ruth's diary is preserved from 1933 to 1942. She wrote in her diary about the deteriorating conditions for Austria's Jewish population following the Anschluss in 1938, her reaction to the many changes in her life, and her yearning for her family. Her younger sister Judith managed to escape to the United Kingdom. Through her father's contacts, Ruth was able to find refuge in Norway, where she arrived by train on January 30, 1939. She was housed for some time with a Norwegian family. She became fluent in Norwegian within a year, completed her examen artium, and befriended the future poet Gunvor Hofmo at a volunteer work camp in Biri. The two became inseparable, finding lodging and work in various places in Norway. Ruth was also the model for one of Gustav Vigeland's statues called "Surprised," now on permanent display at the Vigeland Park in Oslo. Additionally Ruth was a model for Norwegian painter Åsmund Esval.

She rented a room in Dalbergstien 3 in Oslo in the early fall of 1942 and was arrested on November 26, 1942 and deported on the SS Donau the same day. Arriving in Auschwitz on December 1, 1942, she was led straight into the gas chambers. She lived to be 22.

Her close friend and "twin soul" Gunvor Hofmo kept Ruth's diaries and much of her correspondence. She approached Gyldendal to get them published in 1953, but was turned down. After she died in 1995, Jan Erik Vold went through her papers and came upon Ruth Maier's works. After editing them for ten years, they were published in 2007. Vold was highly impressed by the literary value of the diaries, comparing Ruth Maier's literary talent to that of Hannah Arendt and Susan Sontag. The book was translated into English by Jamie Bulloch in 2009.

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