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Witness: One of the Great Correspondents of the Twentieth Century Tells Her Story
With her perfect memory (and plenty of zip), ninety-five-year-old Ruth Gruber—adventurer, international correspondent, photographer, maker of (and witness to) history, responsible for rescuing hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees during World War II and after—tells her story in her own words and photographs.
Gruber’s life has been extraordinary and extraordinarily heroic. She received a B.A. from New York University in three years, a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin a year later, and a Ph.D. from the University of Cologne (magna cum laude) one year after that, becoming at age twenty the youngest Ph.D. in the world (it made headlines in The New York Times ; the subject of her the then little-known Virginia Woolf).
At twenty-four, Gruber became an international correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune and traveled across the Soviet Arctic, scooping the world and witnessing, firsthand, the building of cities in the Siberian gulag by the pioneers and prisoners Stalin didn’t execute . . . At thirty, she traveled to Alaska for Harold L. Ickes, FDR’s secretary of the interior, to look into homesteading for G.I.s after World War II . . . And when she was thirty-three, Ickes assigned another secret mission to her—one that transformed her Gruber escorted 1,000 Holocaust survivors from Italy to America, the only Jews given refuge in this country during the war. “I have a theory,” Gruber said, “that even though we’re born Jews, there is a moment in our lives when we become Jews. On that ship, I became a Jew.”
Gruber’s role as rescuer of Jews was just beginning.
In Witness , Gruber writes about what she saw and shows us, through her haunting and life-affirming photographs–taken on each of her assignments– the worlds, the people, the landscapes, the courage, the hope, the life she witnessed up close and the Siberian gulag of the 1930s and the new cities being built there (Gruber, then untrained as a photographer, brought her first Rolleicord with her) . . . the Alaska highway of 1943, built by 11,000 soldiers, mostly black men from the South (the highway went from Dawson Creek, British Columbia, 1,500 miles to Fairbanks) . . . her thirteen-day voyage on the army-troop transport Henry Gibbins with refugees and wounded American soldiers, escorting and then photographing the refugees as they arrived in Oswego, New York (they arrived in upstate New York as Adolf Eichmann was sending 750,000 Jews from Hungary to Auschwitz).
In 1947, Gruber traveled for the Herald Tribune with the United Nations Special Commission on Palestine (UNSCOP) through the postwar displaced persons camps in Europe, and then to North Africa, Palestine, and the Arab world; the committee’s recommendation that Palestine be partitioned into a Jewish state and an Arab state was one of the key factors that led to the founding of Israel.
We see Gruber’s remarkable photographs of a former American pleasure boat (which had been renamed Exodus 1947) as it limped into Haifa harbor, trying to deliver 4,500 Jewish refugees (including 600 orphans), under attack by five British destroyers and a cruiser that stormed the Exodus with guns, tear gas, and truncheons, while the crew of the Exodus fought back with potatoes, sticks, and cans of kosher meat. In a cable to the Herald Tribune , Gruber reported that “the ship looks like a matchbox splintered by a nutcracker.” She was with the people of the Exodus and photographed them when they were herded onto three prison ships. Gruber represented the entire American press aboard the ship Runnymede Park, photographing the prisoners as they defiantly painted a swastika on the Union Jack.
During her thirty-two years as a correspondent, Ruth Gruber photographed what she saw and captured the triumph of the human spirit.
“Take photographs with your heart,” Edward Steichen told her.
Witness is a revelation—of a time, a place, a world, a spirit, a belief. It is, above all else, a book of heart.
Gruber’s life has been extraordinary and extraordinarily heroic. She received a B.A. from New York University in three years, a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin a year later, and a Ph.D. from the University of Cologne (magna cum laude) one year after that, becoming at age twenty the youngest Ph.D. in the world (it made headlines in The New York Times ; the subject of her the then little-known Virginia Woolf).
At twenty-four, Gruber became an international correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune and traveled across the Soviet Arctic, scooping the world and witnessing, firsthand, the building of cities in the Siberian gulag by the pioneers and prisoners Stalin didn’t execute . . . At thirty, she traveled to Alaska for Harold L. Ickes, FDR’s secretary of the interior, to look into homesteading for G.I.s after World War II . . . And when she was thirty-three, Ickes assigned another secret mission to her—one that transformed her Gruber escorted 1,000 Holocaust survivors from Italy to America, the only Jews given refuge in this country during the war. “I have a theory,” Gruber said, “that even though we’re born Jews, there is a moment in our lives when we become Jews. On that ship, I became a Jew.”
Gruber’s role as rescuer of Jews was just beginning.
In Witness , Gruber writes about what she saw and shows us, through her haunting and life-affirming photographs–taken on each of her assignments– the worlds, the people, the landscapes, the courage, the hope, the life she witnessed up close and the Siberian gulag of the 1930s and the new cities being built there (Gruber, then untrained as a photographer, brought her first Rolleicord with her) . . . the Alaska highway of 1943, built by 11,000 soldiers, mostly black men from the South (the highway went from Dawson Creek, British Columbia, 1,500 miles to Fairbanks) . . . her thirteen-day voyage on the army-troop transport Henry Gibbins with refugees and wounded American soldiers, escorting and then photographing the refugees as they arrived in Oswego, New York (they arrived in upstate New York as Adolf Eichmann was sending 750,000 Jews from Hungary to Auschwitz).
In 1947, Gruber traveled for the Herald Tribune with the United Nations Special Commission on Palestine (UNSCOP) through the postwar displaced persons camps in Europe, and then to North Africa, Palestine, and the Arab world; the committee’s recommendation that Palestine be partitioned into a Jewish state and an Arab state was one of the key factors that led to the founding of Israel.
We see Gruber’s remarkable photographs of a former American pleasure boat (which had been renamed Exodus 1947) as it limped into Haifa harbor, trying to deliver 4,500 Jewish refugees (including 600 orphans), under attack by five British destroyers and a cruiser that stormed the Exodus with guns, tear gas, and truncheons, while the crew of the Exodus fought back with potatoes, sticks, and cans of kosher meat. In a cable to the Herald Tribune , Gruber reported that “the ship looks like a matchbox splintered by a nutcracker.” She was with the people of the Exodus and photographed them when they were herded onto three prison ships. Gruber represented the entire American press aboard the ship Runnymede Park, photographing the prisoners as they defiantly painted a swastika on the Union Jack.
During her thirty-two years as a correspondent, Ruth Gruber photographed what she saw and captured the triumph of the human spirit.
“Take photographs with your heart,” Edward Steichen told her.
Witness is a revelation—of a time, a place, a world, a spirit, a belief. It is, above all else, a book of heart.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published April 24, 2007
24 people are currently reading
248 people want to read
About the author
Ruth Gruber
36 books40 followersRuth Gruber was an award-winning Jewish American journalist, photographer, and humanitarian. Born in Brooklyn in 1911, she became the youngest PhD in the world and went on to author nineteen books, including the National Jewish Book Award–winning biography Raquela (1978). She also wrote several memoirs documenting her astonishing experiences, among them Ahead of Time (1991), Inside of Time (2002), and Haven (1983), which documents her role in the rescue of one thousand refugees from Europe and their safe transport to America.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
September 25, 2022
Ms. Gruber has shown me, just how badly we, as Americans, treated Jewish after WWII. Along with the British.
Through her words and photographs, we are able to read and see what a strong adventurous woman Ms. Gruber was.
At twenty, she was the youngest PH.D. holders in the world. At twenty-four she became an international correspondent for New York Herald Tribune.
She traveled across the Soviet Artic to see firsthand what was happening in their gulag. She traveled to Alaska the building on the main highway and when it was finished she was instrumental in showing G.I.s what a beautiful country it is and thus getting many areas of Alsaka settled by more people.
She escorted 1,000 Holocaust survivors from Italy to America. And she never stopped reporting about the problems Jewish people faced every day around the world.
Ms. Gruber stated, " I have a theory, that even though we are born Jewish, there is a moment when we become Jewish, and for her, it was on the ship with the Holocaust victims."
Through her words and photographs, we are able to read and see what a strong adventurous woman Ms. Gruber was.
At twenty, she was the youngest PH.D. holders in the world. At twenty-four she became an international correspondent for New York Herald Tribune.
She traveled across the Soviet Artic to see firsthand what was happening in their gulag. She traveled to Alaska the building on the main highway and when it was finished she was instrumental in showing G.I.s what a beautiful country it is and thus getting many areas of Alsaka settled by more people.
She escorted 1,000 Holocaust survivors from Italy to America. And she never stopped reporting about the problems Jewish people faced every day around the world.
Ms. Gruber stated, " I have a theory, that even though we are born Jewish, there is a moment when we become Jewish, and for her, it was on the ship with the Holocaust victims."
July 9, 2019
Ruth Gruber was a pioneering female journalist – of sorts. In today’s terms she was an advocate, even a partisan for refugee causes, particularly for Jewish refugees in the wreckage of World War II. She was more of a well-connected gadfly, sometimes serving governments and sometimes writing for the New York Herald Tribune. As a self-described photographer, she wasn’t a particularly good one. For a journalist, she wasn’t much of a writer, at least judging from Witness: One of the Great Correspondents of the Twentieth Century Tells Her Story. Still, this book is worth reading. It covers a period and events that slip through the cracks in most histories. Conflict did not end with VJ Day. For the middle east, it was just the beginning. Despite the fuzzy photographs and the stilted prose, Gruber conveys the anguish and hardships experienced by millions uprooted by the war and thrown into the cauldron of Israeli – Arab relations. And she certainly led an amazing, adventurous, and courageous life.
August 30, 2025
I knew nothing of Ruth Gruber before picking up this book (library book shelf challenge, a game my son and I play.) The 190 photographs selected from her collection detail her incredible professional career as a journalist at a time when in history when you would least expect a woman to travel the world as a war correspondent.
My biggest takeaway is the stories of the Jewish people from parts of the world where my first thoughts would not have placed Jewish communities. I also had no idea about the conflicts between aspiring Israeli settlers/Holocaust survivors and the British government in first years following the end of WWII.
The photographs in this memoir and the stories it contains are vital to understanding world history.
My biggest takeaway is the stories of the Jewish people from parts of the world where my first thoughts would not have placed Jewish communities. I also had no idea about the conflicts between aspiring Israeli settlers/Holocaust survivors and the British government in first years following the end of WWII.
The photographs in this memoir and the stories it contains are vital to understanding world history.
February 12, 2018
I viewed a featured film on her life and decided to read a book about her - what an interesting and inspirational life she led - she left no stone unturned and helped her people in their struggles along with helping the US government in the development of Alaska. Sliver through so much and never lost hope - she truly persisted!
December 3, 2023
This was an interesting read of a first person account of the arctic circle in Russia, Alaska, and during WWII and the partition of Palestine. Unfortunately, she tells the story of the partition only from the Israeli perspective so I had to go and do additional reading to find out more about what happened to the Palestinian Arabs during the partition.
August 17, 2007
Ruth Gruber was/is a photojournalist who covered landmark events. This book starts with her journeys to the Soviet Arctic and Alaska in the 1930s and '40s, but the rest of the book deals with Jewish refugees after WWII and the establishment of the state of Israel, the gathering of Jews from around the world. I'd learned about the war and the Holocaust in myriad ways, but this was the first time I'd heard what happened next--the epilogue, so to speak.
It's a fascinating story, but I wanted more from her writing. She's a journalist, not a novelist, and it shows in her terse and almost detached writing. I felt like I was getting the skeleton of the story, and I wanted it to breathe. The pictures are wonderful, but even they don't give the stories enough life.
It's a fascinating story, but I wanted more from her writing. She's a journalist, not a novelist, and it shows in her terse and almost detached writing. I felt like I was getting the skeleton of the story, and I wanted it to breathe. The pictures are wonderful, but even they don't give the stories enough life.
May 12, 2011
I had seen a documentary about Ruth Gruber on TV and knew I had to read the book. She is in her late 90s and was a journalist and photojournalist from the 1930s through the mid 1980s. She covered before and after WWII, the founding of Israel and much more. There are 190 photos in the book and they really tell the story. Her writing is easy to follow and I learned a lot. I also am in awe that a woman during that time could accomplish all she has. She does mention the sexism she faced and also what she did to counter it. Anyone who is interested in that time period would really love this book.
June 26, 2012
Ruth Gruber tells the her story of involvement in recent history. As an investigative reporter with a Ph.D. and friends in the highest places, Ms. Gruber energetically describes her trips to Alaska, Siberia including the Gulag and then mainly to Palestine/Israel around its founding. Her account is passionate and moving. Her perspective is narrow and pays little attention to the why and the wherefore, yet it may be accepted the just as she titles it, "Witness."
July 6, 2011
This was is an amazing woman. To be a woman during the 1930's, a journalist and to go to the places she was able to go. I did not realize why the Jewist people NEEDED an home of their own. After WWII, so many of them were displaced/homeless and they still were being mistreated. I didn't realized that they were so many different jewish people--Yemenites, Somalagias, etc.
March 20, 2013
This is a coffee table book full of pictures. This is the travels of Ruth Gruber, from Gulag, to the Artic, to Alaska, to Palestine, and Ethopia. The pictures are marvelous. She said, you take the pictures with feeling, and she did. This a wonderful book to pick up, Ruth Gruber knows how to take the pictures with heart, and emotion.
March 17, 2011
Wonderful photographs,intelligent and informative text...Ruth Gruber is a real Feminist Hero who created an incredible life,on her own terms,before there was even a vocabulary or Role Model for an American woman who didn't want to accept her "appropriate"role in life...
August 6, 2017
Wonderful book! Ruth Gruber was an amazing woman and reporter. If you haven't read anything by her, you really should. It is probably best to read this book in hard cover or on a fire as there are a lot of pictures.
December 27, 2012
Ruth Gruber was a journalist during WWII. This book is her photographs and story in her own words. Great book, it had me in tears and I learned a lot of history that they don't bother to teach us in public school. I highly recommend it.
December 18, 2013
This is the third time I have read this book. An amazing lady!
April 20, 2014
This book is immensely interesting! I learned a great deal about what happened to the Jewish refugees after WWII.
December 4, 2016
Incredible story of the experiences of Ruth Gruber during her long career as a photographer and reporter.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews