Ruth Gruener was born in Lvov, Poland. The ghetto where she lived was to be deported. Her parents hid her in one of the cupboards in the bathroom. When the Germans came to get her parents they said she was already taken. Her father worked in the ghetto cleaning it up. He then smuggled her out of the ghetto under his coat, and placed her with Joanna Szcygiel Zalucka’s family. Joanna was a Polish Christian. Ruth spent most of her eight months in her home just sitting in a chair, afraid to look outside. Joanna was eighteen and was in charge of keeping an eye out for her. When people came to visit her Joanna would hide her under the bed, or in a trunk. Ruth spent so much time silent and immobilized that she had to relearn how to walk and speak.