. . "Bergmann family: Internment letters"@eng . "Ruth was born in Leipzig, Germany, in 1905. She initially worked as a shop assistant in a department store but after she met 'Fred' (Walter Bergmann) in 1926, she became a medical laboratory assistant but was made redundant and returned to the department store where she worked until she married Fred in 1933. Ruth and Fred had two children, Renée and Tommy. Fred was born in 1907 and studied medicine at Vienna and Freiburg University.

After the November Pogroms in 1938 he operated as a surgeon under house arrest in the Jewish hospital (Israelisches Krankenhaus) in Leipzig up to the end of August 1939. Since Fred's theatre sister had fled and there was a shortage of staff, Ruth became the new assistant. In September 1939, two days before the outbreak of the war, the family emigrated to England. Ruth and her children lived in a hostel with other female refugees in Cheshire whilst Fred was held at Huyten and Douglas internment camps until 1941. Upon release Fred was offered a position in Emergency Medical Services in Macclesfield.

Ruth's parents perished at Auschwitz concentration camp during the war. From 1947 Fred worked at a general practitioner in a surgery in Leytonstone and the family moved to Wanstead."@eng . "Bergmann family: Internment letters"@eng . .