Ruth Schneider

The Schneider family arrived in Belgium in 1939 as Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. The Belgian authorities detained the father, Bruno, in Brussels on 10 May 1940 as a ‘suspect’. He was handed over to the French administration and interned in southern France. Erna Schocken set off in search of her husband early in 1942, travelling to France with her daughter Ruth Schneider. The two women were arrested attempting to cross the demarcation line – the frontier between occupied and unoccupied France – and were interned at Pithiviers. Erna Schocken (48) and Ruth Schneider (17) were deported from there on 7 August 1942 via Transport 16 to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Neither survived deportation. Bruno Schneider (51) was deported from Drancy on 9 September 1942 via Transport 30. He too died under unknown circumstances.