Ruth Weiss, born in 1924 into the Jewish Löwenthal family in Fürth, emigrated with her mother and sister Margot to South Africa in 1936, where her father had already emigrated in 1933. As a child, she first experienced anti-Semitism in Germany and then racism in South Africa, the country that saved her family's life. Throughout her life, she courageously opposed anti-Semitism and racism. She became a business journalist, publishing in various African and international media outlets including the Guardian in London, the Deutsche Welle's Africa desk in Cologne and the Media Trust in Zimbabwe. She met leaders of various African independence movements as Nelson Mandela and Robert Mugabe. Long periods of time, she was denied entry to South Africa and Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) because of her activism.
At the end of her journalistic career, she devoted herself to writing children's books and non-fiction in the 1990s. She also wrote historical novels that reflect the struggle against racism in Germany and Africa. Her novels were always based on historical research, such as the crime novel “Miss Moore and the Saboteurs of Jutland,” written in 2024 in her 100th year, about young Danish opponents of the Nazis. In the last decades of her life, she lived first in Lüdenscheid and finally with her son Alexander in Skorping, Denmark. She was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit for her work.
On the occasion of the 85th anniversary of the proclamation of the Nuremberg Laws, Ruth Weiss reported on her experiences of discrimination, exclusion, and genocide at the Documentation Center Nazi Party Rally Grounds in September 2020. Two years later, in July 2022, a ceremony was held at the Nuremberg Trials Memorial to mark her upcoming 98th birthday. Ruth Weiss was honored by the PEN Center of German-speaking Authors Abroad and Nuremberg's Mayor Marcus König as a “wanderer between worlds” with a commemorative publication of her own, and she addressed the audience with very personal memories and experiences of discrimination, anti-Semitism, and racism, challenging each individual to stand up against injustice to human beings.
With Ruth Weiss's passing, the Documentation Center Nazi Party Rally Grounds and the Nuremberg Trials Memorial have lost a conversation partner, a reminder of the importance of remembrance and peace work. She remains unforgotten and an important mentor of human rights and active engagement in our work.
A video of the ceremony in Room 600 in July 2022
Wandernde zwischen den Welten
Comprehensive information material is available on the Ruth Weiss Society website
ruth-weiss-gesellschaft.de