Haven depicts the true and memorable story about the war life of Ruth Gruber who was Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes. She personally escorted and helped 984 Jewish refugees resettle in the US from war torn Italy. These refugees traveled together with wounded U.S. soldiers on the naval ship Henry Gibbins that ran U-boat gantlets and fought off German air strikes. Traveling the long boat journey, Gruber and these refuges were continually faced with antisemitic hatred and protests from the wounded American soldiers.
Born in 1911 to Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn, Ruth Gruber was one of five children of Russian Jewish immigrant parents, Gussie (Rockower) and David Gruber. The New York Times reported on August 16, 1932, that Ruth received a Ph.D. from the University of Cologne, Germany in German Philosophy, Modern English Literature, and Art History. The New York Times also stated, “Gruber not only graduated with honors but at only 20 years of age she was the youngest German Doctor of Philosophy.”
In the 1930s, she established herself as a journalist writing about women under fascist communism. During World War ll, Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes appointed Gruber as his Special Assistance for Refugee Affairs. In 1944, she was assigned a secret mission to go to Europe and bring 1,000 Jewish refugees and wounded American soldiers from Italy back to the US.
Ickes needed to make her “a simulated general” so if the military aircraft she was traveling in was shot down and she was caught by the Nazis, she would be hopefully kept alive according to the Geneva Convention.
Since the U.S. Congress refused to lift the quota on Jewish immigration from Europe, President Roosevelt was forced to act by executive order and invited this limited group of one thousand refugees to visit America. Gruber battled with Ickes to bring more than 4,000 refugees to the United States but was further blunted by President Roosevelt’s Cabinet. In America at the time there was little appetite to help the Jewish refugees from Europe. In fact, Haven shares repeatedly that there was blatant anti-Semitism in Roosevelt’s Cabinet. Additionally, no country in the world would enable the needed Jewish immigration out of Europe. The ship Exodus, which departed from France on July 11, 1947, was filled to capacity with 4,500 Jewish refugees, making it the most populous boat to bear refugees to Palestine since the end of the Holocaust.
But, even the British who controlled Palestine, were turning away Jews as evidenced by what was witnessed at the Port of Haifa when Holocaust survivors on the ship Exodus were refused entry to British-controlled Palestine and were deported back to Germany.
Gruber’s book Haven: The Dramatic Story of 1000 World War II Refugees and How They Came to America was based on case histories she recorded as she interviewed and photographed these Italian Holocaust refugees. Haven, the film, is also based on Gruber’s book.
The naval ship Henry Gibbins escorted the Holocaust refugees and wounded US soldiers from Naples, Italy. During the trip, Gruber befriended almost all of the Jewish refugees and soon the refugees began calling her “Mother Ruth.”
The Henry Gibbins was hunted by Nazi seaplanes and U-boats escaping attacks at every turn. “This expedition became the defining Jewish moment of her life,”she says in her book. “She knew that from then on, her life would be inseparably interconnected with rescuing Jews in danger.”
When these Jewish refugees passed the Statue of Liberty the sense of pride entering a new, free country was overwhelmingly felt by all of the refugees. Finally, they believed they were free! “Free at last”.
However, when they docked in New York, they were again herded together and forced to board train cars destined for an internment camp in Oswego, New York. One could only image what the image of another transport train meant to these desperate refugees. They were scared and diminished, thinking they were again facing another concentration camp or worse.
Based on US immigration policies during the war, these refugees were to be held for a period of one year but unfortunately it was then mandated by the Roosevelt administration that they were to be held in a “Safe Haven” as “guest of President FDR” for the duration of the war. Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter in Oswego became their resettlement/internment camp. During this difficult period, It became crystal clear to those inside and outside government that the US government had no formal policy for the immigration of the Jewish refugees coming from European countries.
At Fort Ontario, these refugees were also being held against their will in an American internment camp surrounded by barbed wire and armed US soldiers. The current residents Oswego, New York, also didn’t want the Jewish refugees in their community and were openly hostile to those in the Fort Ontario camp. Integration with the local residents was also strictly forbidden and restricted by the US military. The European Jews of Oswego were again left all alone to fend for themselves. Again, left to fear what the future holds for them.
While U.S. government agencies continued to argue among themselves whether these refugees should be allowed to stay or, at some point, be deported back to Europe, Gruber continually lobbied the Cabinet officials to keep the refugees in the camp through the end of the war.
It was nearing the end of the war in 1945 that Roosevelt died, and Harry S. Truman took the office of the President of the United States. After the war ended, it was Gruber who once again forcefully advocated for the residents of Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter to be allowed U.S. citizenship, giving them the opportunity to stay in the country if they so desired.
Even the Oswego citizens were now rallying for the Jewish refugees to be resettled in Oswego or to go and live with their extended families across the US.
It was during Truman’s early tenure as President that Gruber asked and received a meeting with him to plead that these refugees not be deported back to their countries of origin.
It was a result of Gruber’s meeting with Truman and his seeing films of the horrors of the Nazi Concentration Camps along with US soldiers’ eyewitness reports that these refugees were granted citizen status.
It was because of the noble efforts of Gruber and her tremendous power of persuasion that Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter was eventually closed but in the bigger picture it was unfortunately the only shelter in the US for Jewish refugees during World War II.
Gruber’s book about the experience became the basis for the permanent Holocaust exhibit in the State Museum in Albany, New York, called “From Holocaust to Haven.”
On Sunday, October 6, 2002, Gruber herself helped dedicate the Safe Haven Museum in Oswego, New York.
In her honor the museum library is called The Dr. Ruth Gruber Library and Resource Center. Ruth Gruber passed at 105 in 2016.
Those interested in reading more about Gruber will find her this movie, Haven along with her book a fitting documentation of her important work.
The film does a fine job of depicting Gruber’s amazing war story, her struggles within the US government and the stories of the refugees. The film also depicts the prevalent anti-Semitism that was rampant within the State Department, military, and among various Cabinet heads.
No more spoilers here… but it is noteworthy that the film is chock full of historical references and provides a great overlay of true events. Second note: the film is over three hours long and I do recommend viewing the film but doing so over two or three sessions. Beware: there are also a modicum of violence and scenes of Kristallnacht, looting and violence against the Jews along with a few flashbacks of concentration camp scenes in the film.
CAST and CREW
- Director John Gray
- Screenplay Suzette Couture
- Actors and their Characters:
- Natasha Richardson – Ruth Gruber
- Hal Holbrook – Harold Ickes
- Martin Landau – Papa Gruner
- Anne Bancroft – Mama Gruber
- William Petersen – Jackson Connolly
- Bruce Greenwood – Myles Billingsley
- Colm Feore – Bruno
- Henry Czeny – Ernst
- Kenneth Welsh – Harry Truman
Jeffery Giesener, former CEO of SourceMob, has both public and private company experience. Today, retired and enjoying life in San Diego, he’s a freelance writer who has a passion for both cinema and baking his Mom’s (OBM) European recipes. His movie reviews typically are posted on Monday, but this one was moved to Sunday to avoid a conflict with Yom Kippur.
Republished from San Diego Jewish World