Eva London Ritt - NNN 2022

Eva remembers a comfortable, secure and idyllic home in Hamburg, Germany. Things radically changed after the implementation of the Nuremberg Laws and later, Kristallnacht, in November of 1938. With the rise of antisemitism, the Ritt family moved from their lovely home to an apartment, and later were forced to move again, when strict residence regulations forced Jews to live in designated areas, concentrating them in “Jewish houses” (Judenhauser). Although it was almost impossible to secure visas to America, their cousins in Baltimore sponsored them, and the Ritts were able to leave Germany. Eva was only seven years old when the family left. Although she was veryyoung, she remembers and often thinks about the cousins, aunts, and uncles who perished; she is very grateful for her good fortune. Eva turned her gratitude into action when she became an activist for Soviet Jewry in the 1970’s. She could not stand aside and let Jews be persecuted by unfounded hatred. Her Soviet Jewry collection of letters is now part of the archives of Yeshiva University in New York.