What do you think?
Rate this book
Haven by Ruth Gruber
"The words leaped at me from The Washington Post. 'I have decided,' President Franklin Delano Roosevelt announced, 'that approximately 1,000 refugees should be immediately brought from Italy to this country.' One thousand refugees....For years, refugees knocking on the doors of American consulates abroad had been told, 'You cannot enter America. The quotas are filled.' And, while the quotas remained untouchable ... millions died."
With this mixture of desperation and hope, Ruth Gruber begins Haven, the inspiring story of one thousand Jewish and Christian refugees brought to sanctuary in America in 1944. As special assistant to Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes, Gruber was selected to carry out this top-secret mission despite the objections of military brass who doubted the thirty-three-year-old woman's qualifications. When Gruber met the gaunt survivors, they told her about hiding in sewers and forests, of risking their lives to save others. As she wrote down their stories, tears often wiped out the words in her notebook.
Gruber became the refugees' guardian angel during the dangerous crossing of the U-boat-haunted Atlantic, and during their eighteen-month internment at a former army camp in Oswego, New York. Lobbying Congress at the end of the war, she also helped the refugees become American citizens. This edition concludes with a new chapter featuring Gruber's look back on her many decades as a crusading journalist, and a special Appendix from the 1946 Congressional Record listing the names of all the camp's residents.
Basis for the CBS Mini-series Starring Natasha Richardson.
With this mixture of desperation and hope, Ruth Gruber begins Haven, the inspiring story of one thousand Jewish and Christian refugees brought to sanctuary in America in 1944. As special assistant to Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes, Gruber was selected to carry out this top-secret mission despite the objections of military brass who doubted the thirty-three-year-old woman's qualifications. When Gruber met the gaunt survivors, they told her about hiding in sewers and forests, of risking their lives to save others. As she wrote down their stories, tears often wiped out the words in her notebook.
Gruber became the refugees' guardian angel during the dangerous crossing of the U-boat-haunted Atlantic, and during their eighteen-month internment at a former army camp in Oswego, New York. Lobbying Congress at the end of the war, she also helped the refugees become American citizens. This edition concludes with a new chapter featuring Gruber's look back on her many decades as a crusading journalist, and a special Appendix from the 1946 Congressional Record listing the names of all the camp's residents.
Basis for the CBS Mini-series Starring Natasha Richardson.
Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1966
202 people are currently reading
1771 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 117 reviews
October 17, 2011
I thought I'd be reading the tales of a select few of a thousand stories, instead, I only read one.
This isn't as much a story of the 982 Jews fleeing from Europe and Nazi terror to be President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's guests in the United States as it's a story of a young woman making the trip with them and acting as their guide to their new life and home.
Haven and its thousand refugees are only the frame that holds the picture of Ruth Gruber facing her life-altering moment as she learns the extent of the horrors of the concentration camps, and the obstacles that come with modern democracy.
This book offers a rare glimpse to the inner machinations of the government and politicians and officials deciding people's fates. It shows the nasty edge of all politics as well as few good moments when reason and humanism wins. Gruber tells just how difficult it was to offer sanctuary for even those thousand people while millions were dying, and she shows all the loops she and others had to clear before the refugees could reclaim their lives and build new homes for themselves in America.
She also goes to a great detail of all the things that followed for herself over the years after the refugee camp had been closed.
All in all, I can see why she'd choose first person voice to tell this story. It is a personal story and it is nearly impossible to stay detached, but I do think that the book suffers for the lack of objectivity. I missed the neutrality as I read about the suppressed memorandums and the stern resolution to send the refugees back to the ravaged Europe as soon as the war would have ended. I missed it, because I couldn't feel the frustration or anything else Gruber must have felt while living through those months and years despite the intimate point of view.
The lack of objectivity also drowns out the individual survival stories that I thought were the most memorable parts of the book, or at least should have been.
Still, this is a story that had to be written and should be read. People need to know the mistakes of the past to learn from them.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.
This isn't as much a story of the 982 Jews fleeing from Europe and Nazi terror to be President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's guests in the United States as it's a story of a young woman making the trip with them and acting as their guide to their new life and home.
Haven and its thousand refugees are only the frame that holds the picture of Ruth Gruber facing her life-altering moment as she learns the extent of the horrors of the concentration camps, and the obstacles that come with modern democracy.
This book offers a rare glimpse to the inner machinations of the government and politicians and officials deciding people's fates. It shows the nasty edge of all politics as well as few good moments when reason and humanism wins. Gruber tells just how difficult it was to offer sanctuary for even those thousand people while millions were dying, and she shows all the loops she and others had to clear before the refugees could reclaim their lives and build new homes for themselves in America.
She also goes to a great detail of all the things that followed for herself over the years after the refugee camp had been closed.
All in all, I can see why she'd choose first person voice to tell this story. It is a personal story and it is nearly impossible to stay detached, but I do think that the book suffers for the lack of objectivity. I missed the neutrality as I read about the suppressed memorandums and the stern resolution to send the refugees back to the ravaged Europe as soon as the war would have ended. I missed it, because I couldn't feel the frustration or anything else Gruber must have felt while living through those months and years despite the intimate point of view.
The lack of objectivity also drowns out the individual survival stories that I thought were the most memorable parts of the book, or at least should have been.
Still, this is a story that had to be written and should be read. People need to know the mistakes of the past to learn from them.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.
August 22, 2009
This book documents the trials and the lives of refugees from the Holocaust in Europe.When no one else would help, they were given sanctuary at the Fort Ontario Emergency Refuge Center in Oswego, New York. This was the only shelter of its kind in the U.S. I have visited this site, which is now a museum and education center. It is small, but impressive, located in the beautiful countryside in N.Y. state. The story of their passage in the dangerous Atlantic and the efforts by Ruth Gruber are described with heartrending detail in this book. Of interest is the participation of the people from this area to lend assistance to the refugees.
December 28, 2015
$2.99
Seems like the stories from World War II, and in particular the Holocaust, are never ending, not to mention not well recorded for our American history. At least I had never heard this story, and as I was reading it, I wondered how many hundreds of thousands of stories have never been told and silenced forever.
While World War II was raging across Europe, FDR decided to invite 1000 refugees to come to the US until the war ended. He chose journalist Ruth Gruber to be in charge of bringing them to our country since she was fluent in German and Yiddish, not to mention perhaps she would have a more calming influence on the refugees as a woman. In May 1944, she landed in Naples and 982 refugees supported the ship bound for freedom. They were from 18 different countries, and while most were Jewish, there were also Greek Orthodox, Catholics, and a smattering of others.
On the ship, the author organized classrooms to help those who didn't speak English, as well as recording their stories. This was very difficult for me to read, and as is almost always the case, I had to stop several times. The human spirit NEVER to amaze me, and not only is it a miracle that so many survived these camps, etc. (not just physically, but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually), but had the courage to relive their horrors by recording them in one form or another so we will always know what happened.
The refugees were thrilled to be coming to America and were settled into account in Western New York, Oswego. They were grateful but as time went on, they were still not free. After the war was over, there was a huge political fight in Congress that dragged on until early 1946 when they were free to stay here as citizens thanks to Truman.
While I was reading this book, I was struck once again how so many people are anti-Semite and yet go to war for the Jewish people. I believe part of this is a humanitarian gesture, but that fails to satisfy me since they are still persecuted and not treated class human beings for so much of the time. This is one thing I don't think I will ever understand.
Seems like the stories from World War II, and in particular the Holocaust, are never ending, not to mention not well recorded for our American history. At least I had never heard this story, and as I was reading it, I wondered how many hundreds of thousands of stories have never been told and silenced forever.
While World War II was raging across Europe, FDR decided to invite 1000 refugees to come to the US until the war ended. He chose journalist Ruth Gruber to be in charge of bringing them to our country since she was fluent in German and Yiddish, not to mention perhaps she would have a more calming influence on the refugees as a woman. In May 1944, she landed in Naples and 982 refugees supported the ship bound for freedom. They were from 18 different countries, and while most were Jewish, there were also Greek Orthodox, Catholics, and a smattering of others.
On the ship, the author organized classrooms to help those who didn't speak English, as well as recording their stories. This was very difficult for me to read, and as is almost always the case, I had to stop several times. The human spirit NEVER to amaze me, and not only is it a miracle that so many survived these camps, etc. (not just physically, but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually), but had the courage to relive their horrors by recording them in one form or another so we will always know what happened.
The refugees were thrilled to be coming to America and were settled into account in Western New York, Oswego. They were grateful but as time went on, they were still not free. After the war was over, there was a huge political fight in Congress that dragged on until early 1946 when they were free to stay here as citizens thanks to Truman.
While I was reading this book, I was struck once again how so many people are anti-Semite and yet go to war for the Jewish people. I believe part of this is a humanitarian gesture, but that fails to satisfy me since they are still persecuted and not treated class human beings for so much of the time. This is one thing I don't think I will ever understand.
September 5, 2015
Haven recounts an amazing story of rescue and redemption. In 1944, Franklin Roosevelt agrees to allow 1000 European refugees to come to America. Ruth Gruber, the author, escorts them to Oswego, NY where an internment camp has been built for these newcomers. Before the refugees were allowed to enter the country, they all signed contracts that they would return to their home countries at the end of the war. With compassion and grace, Gruber recounts the horrifying stories of these survivors. In their complete insanity, the Nazis pursued the Jews and other minorities with undying zeal. All of these refugees relate hair raising stories. You cannot read these vignettes without a tear. On a personal note, my wife is a native of Oswego, NY and the arrival of these refugees was the biggest event in the history of her small town. If you want to understand the creation of the state of Israel or the horrors of the Holocaust, read this amazing book. We should never forget what happened to these people and the all of Europe due to the madness and insanity of the Nazis and Germany.
March 25, 2018
"Haven" is Ruth Gruber's remarkable account of a relatively small but still significant effort to rescue refugees from Nazi occupied Europe. In July 1944, 982 people from eighteen countries (most, but not all, were Jews) crossed the Atlantic from Italy. Their destination was a camp in Oswego, New York, where they were to stay until the Second World War ended. Roosevelt insisted that they would not be granted U. S. citizenship when the fighting ceased. Instead, they would be sent back to their native lands. As a special assistant to Harold L. Ickes, FDR's Secretary of the Interior, thirty-two year old Gruber was assigned to escort the refugees and help resettle them in Fort Ontario, a former army camp. The author tells us of the endless maneuvering it took to obtain basic necessities for these traumatized men, women, and children. In addition, Gruber tried to keep the evacuees from sinking into depression by providing much-needed comfort, kindness, and encouragement.
Gruber, who passed away in 2016 at the age of one hundred and five, was brilliant, energetic, and a great communicator. With the assistance of those who shared her passion, she embarked on a critical mission—to help those who fled Hitler's regime to obtain educational opportunities, a livelihood, dignity, and the chance to pursue their dreams. Standing in the way were powerful men who did not welcome the foreign-born to their shores. This outstanding book is based on the diaries that Gruber kept, as well as reports, letters, and government documents.
It is partly thanks to Gruber's persuasiveness and determination to fight for what she believed that the refugees were, at long last, allowed to remain in America. They reunited with family members, married and had children, went to school, and worked hard to achieve their goals. Especially heartening is the author's update on what the evacuees accomplished years after they were granted permanent asylum. Many became successful professionals, excelling in such fields as science, medicine, business, teaching, and the arts.
There are many poignant, enlightening, and humorous anecdotes in "Haven." Although the writing style is, for the most part, factual, there are passages that capture the wide spectrum of the evacuees' emotions: gratitude and relief to be out of physical danger, but also anger and frustration at having to stay in a compound behind a chain-link fence with barbed wire during their eighteen months in Oswego. Besides the chapters describing the joys and sorrows that Gruber and the refugees experienced, we learn about Gruber's personal life; her pilgrimages to concentration camps; tireless efforts to bring displaced persons to Israel; speeches she made to publicize the causes in which she believed; and her remarkable work as a journalist and photographer. When Ruth Gruber set her mind on getting things done, she persisted until every avenue was explored and every possibility exhausted. Ms. Gruber was a woman of valor whose compassion, courage generosity, and activism drove her to move mountains to help those in need.
Gruber, who passed away in 2016 at the age of one hundred and five, was brilliant, energetic, and a great communicator. With the assistance of those who shared her passion, she embarked on a critical mission—to help those who fled Hitler's regime to obtain educational opportunities, a livelihood, dignity, and the chance to pursue their dreams. Standing in the way were powerful men who did not welcome the foreign-born to their shores. This outstanding book is based on the diaries that Gruber kept, as well as reports, letters, and government documents.
It is partly thanks to Gruber's persuasiveness and determination to fight for what she believed that the refugees were, at long last, allowed to remain in America. They reunited with family members, married and had children, went to school, and worked hard to achieve their goals. Especially heartening is the author's update on what the evacuees accomplished years after they were granted permanent asylum. Many became successful professionals, excelling in such fields as science, medicine, business, teaching, and the arts.
There are many poignant, enlightening, and humorous anecdotes in "Haven." Although the writing style is, for the most part, factual, there are passages that capture the wide spectrum of the evacuees' emotions: gratitude and relief to be out of physical danger, but also anger and frustration at having to stay in a compound behind a chain-link fence with barbed wire during their eighteen months in Oswego. Besides the chapters describing the joys and sorrows that Gruber and the refugees experienced, we learn about Gruber's personal life; her pilgrimages to concentration camps; tireless efforts to bring displaced persons to Israel; speeches she made to publicize the causes in which she believed; and her remarkable work as a journalist and photographer. When Ruth Gruber set her mind on getting things done, she persisted until every avenue was explored and every possibility exhausted. Ms. Gruber was a woman of valor whose compassion, courage generosity, and activism drove her to move mountains to help those in need.
February 7, 2017
Great story about the rescue of almost 1,000 refugees from Italy in 1944 by order of FDR. Particularly pertinent today as we refuse to let in Syrian refugees fleeing war and persecution. The book is much better than the made for TV movie with Natasha Richardson. The book ends with a recap of Ruth Gruber's amazing life after she helped with this mission, including many other adventures and reporting assignments. Most importantly at the end she is asked how she does it all and answers "In four simple words, never, never, never retire." Good advice for me as I enter that phase. I am sorry to say that our library doesn't even have a single copy of this book. A serious oversight.
April 6, 2013
This was eye opening. I have read a great deal about World War II in regards to Hitler's Holocaust but I never realized to what extent the US government had turned its head away from reality. This is the account of how we finally allowed 1000 persecuted Jews into our country in order to save their lives and their struggle to be able to remain here when the war ended.
The journalist who fought for and accompanied the survivors through this journey is the author.
The journalist who fought for and accompanied the survivors through this journey is the author.
March 27, 2016
I had no idea we had taken in Jewish refugees, though I was also shocked at how few we allowed in because of immigration quota. It was an inspiring story and I hope to read the rest of Ms. Gruber's books.
January 5, 2022
An eye opening narrative that is surprisingly still relevant!
Note: The version I read is a 1983 print and might be different than this multi-author 2000 print but I feel comfortable recommending it based on the other reviewers.
Note: The version I read is a 1983 print and might be different than this multi-author 2000 print but I feel comfortable recommending it based on the other reviewers.
September 20, 2016
Hard to believe that this story isn't more well known. Also hard to believe that our government acted.
January 22, 2025
Great book, but don't read while waiting for your auto service, people will look at you funny for weeping in public! People in America have an inkling that something terrible is happening to the Jews in Europe, but the general public doesn't know the full extent and America has her quota system. Isolationists were determined to keep Jews out of America and refused to allow Visas for people being killed. Finally, there is enough political pressure that Roosevelt agrees to allow 1,000 refugees into America, but they must agree to return to Europe after the war. Ruth Gruber was an assistant in the Department of the Interior who had to fight her way into the position of guide, to be part of this historic program. She flies to Italy and boards a ship with the 982 refugees, and 1,000 wounded soldiers, doctors and nurses. The refugees are in rags, some still in the striped pajamas from concentration camps. They are the brave, the tough, the kind, the survivors of the unthinkable and they are ready for good food, safety and home. Ruth accompanies the refugees across the dangerous Atlantic and then to a resettlement "camp" in Oswego, NY. To people who have been in concentration camps the refugee camp behind barbed wire is very concerning. Ruth has to help people settle in, gather support and she advocates for everything from clean dishes, to education, to the right to marry. Very well written and I will definitely seek out more that she has written, it sounds like she has seen many pivotal moments in history.
February 28, 2025
I have been transcribing my grandma’s journals and she mentioned going to a book club about Ruth Gruber’s book. The title was slightly different but I found this one at my library. And after reading it, I would love to read her other 18 books. Ruth Gruber led a fascinating life - the youngest person to receive a PhD and an inspiring humanitarian and journalist.
I did not know the story of the WWII refugees housed in Oswego. It pulls at my heartstrings that we didn’t rescue more. So interesting to read the snippets of each one’s life…background and current. So much frustration at how our government hid knowledge and didn’t choose loving others over politics. Note most of the book is about what went on behind the scenes in trying to give these refugees a place to create new life.
I also found the last added chapter interesting with its insights into Ruth’s later life as a result of her refugee help and the settling of Israel.
I did not know the story of the WWII refugees housed in Oswego. It pulls at my heartstrings that we didn’t rescue more. So interesting to read the snippets of each one’s life…background and current. So much frustration at how our government hid knowledge and didn’t choose loving others over politics. Note most of the book is about what went on behind the scenes in trying to give these refugees a place to create new life.
I also found the last added chapter interesting with its insights into Ruth’s later life as a result of her refugee help and the settling of Israel.
January 7, 2015
This is the story of a small group of Europeans rescued in 1944 from Europe and given haven in the US by President Roosevelt. The writer is a Jewish American journalist who was working for the Department of the Interior and spent much of her time coordinating the project and documenting the experiences of the refugees. She becomes more than just an objective documentation collector but comes to represent to those living on the former Army base at Oswego as a sort of guardian angel and problem solver for the community.
I was not very impressed with the writing but anyone reading this book will be moved by the harrowing stories of the survivors. Their stories are added to the many others I have read about in other books, what courage and determination to survive!
The writer mentions but does not dwell on the tragic refusal of the US to help European Jewish refugees during the entire Nazi era. However, it is this that stays with me as much as the individual stories of survival. This one action was a token project to diminish the government's collective guilt as the horrible truth was finally being grasped. Stories of the atrocities of Hitler were suppressed by the government for the entire war. The public was not given enough information to provide opinions on what should be done. Those in power determined the policies and non-response of our country. The irony that over 100,000 3rd Reich POWs were brought to the US during the war and treated well is hard to reconcile.
I was not very impressed with the writing but anyone reading this book will be moved by the harrowing stories of the survivors. Their stories are added to the many others I have read about in other books, what courage and determination to survive!
The writer mentions but does not dwell on the tragic refusal of the US to help European Jewish refugees during the entire Nazi era. However, it is this that stays with me as much as the individual stories of survival. This one action was a token project to diminish the government's collective guilt as the horrible truth was finally being grasped. Stories of the atrocities of Hitler were suppressed by the government for the entire war. The public was not given enough information to provide opinions on what should be done. Those in power determined the policies and non-response of our country. The irony that over 100,000 3rd Reich POWs were brought to the US during the war and treated well is hard to reconcile.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 117 reviews