Ruth Mermelstein was born in Romania and became a victim of the Nazis when she was just a young girl. Ruth and her older sister survived the death camps, but the rest of their family perished. Despite her suffering, starvation, and illness, Ruth never forgot the last words her father spoke to her when they were traveling together on a packed boxcar to Auschwitz, “I have confidence in you. You are going to make it. You are a strong girl.” Though she never again saw her father after they entered the death camp, his words kept her alive and have empowered her throughout her life.
Following liberation, Ruth lived in Sweden for ten years and, with the help of her sister, met the man who would become her husband. They moved to the United States and were married for 57 years. She has two daughters, two sons-in-law, and three grandchildren. She speaks to groups of students about her experience and advises them to study and stay in school. “Make this a better life,” she says. “Do something good with it.”
To learn more about Ruth in her own words, click here.
When Mia Kamensky was in ninth grade, she had the opportunity to meet Holocaust survivors and hear their stories first-hand. The following summer, Mia was a student at Sotheby’s Institute of Art where she was asked to create a piece of art that would “make a change in the world.”
While brainstorming what to create, Mia immediately thought of the Holocaust survivors she had met.
“It scares me how there are people in the world who deny the existence of the Holocaust, and if there ever was a time to educate and advocate, the time is now because the survivors are an aging population.”
For the Sotheby’s assignment, Mia made an acrylic painting of a survivor named Ruth and wrote the Hebrew word “La-daat” – which means “to know” – beneath Ruth’s portrait.
Typically, when referring to the Holocaust, the Hebrew word “Leez-chor” or “to remember” is used. Mia wanted the essence of the piece to convey that it is essential to not just remember, but also know. She then attached a QR code to the piece so that viewers could scan the code with their cell phone and read Ruth’s story.
That Sotheby’s assignment deeply inspired Mia. She decided to commit her personal time to meeting with more survivors, drawing their portraits, writing up their personal stories and attaching a QR code to each piece.
Mia called this advocacy project 6MK (6 Million Known). The mission of 6MK is to spread awareness through art, writing, and history, so that one day, we will live in a world with less Holocaust denial, less hatred, more acceptance and greater compassion.
