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MOTHER RUTH from page
67
Roosevelt. (Roosevelt, worried that
the New Deal was being called "the
Jew Deal," found it hard to bring
more refugees into a country that
was at the time both anti-Semitic
and isolationist.)
The second part of the miniseries
shows the multilingual Gruber's con-
tinuing relationship with the refugees
— from 18 different countries — and
her nonstop work lobbying Congress
and President Truman so the desperate
travelers could leave the camp, remain
in America and become U.S. citizens.
Also appearing in the film are Hal
Holbrook as Ickes, Martin Landau as
Papa Gruber, Anne Bancroft as Mama
Gruber and Bruce Greenwood (JFK in
Thirteen Days) as Myles Billingsley Sr.,
an Oswego resident whose life
becomes bound up with those of the
refugees.
Gruber, still a working writer and
author of 15 books, was in grave dan-
ger during the vovaae and so was
made a temporary- 'simulated" general
to give her some protection should she
be captured. According to the Geneva
Convention, captured military person-
nel would have to be kept alive, fed
and sheltered.
"After all these years, so many peo-
ple will learn that America did open
its arms to [almost] 1,000 refugees,
and they gave back to America every-
thing America gave to them and
more," says Gruber. The author has
been to Detroit many times, most
recently for the book fair at the Jewish
Community Center and only months
before that to address a large Hadassah
meeting.
"This voyage was one of the best-
kept secrets of World War II, and the
refugees have since become doctors,
scientists, psychologists, business peo-
ple and good citizens. One was impor-
tant to the development of the CAT
scan and the MRI and another to the
Polaris Missile.
"They called me Mother Ruth, but I
think from these 1,000, I must have at
least 5,000 or 10,000 grandchildren
and great-grandchildren, and they are
wonderful, contributing human
beings."
During her book fair visit last fall,
Gruber visited with the family of Josef
Langnas, now living in Southfield.
Langnas made the journey with
Gruber and had his bar mitzvah at the
Oswego camp.
"I read the script before shooting
began and made a few suggestions,"
says Gruber, who focused on one
scene where the people of Oswego
show hostility toward the refugees.
"The picture has a lot of courageous
confrontation with anti-Semitism, but
I pointed out there were many people
who were excited about the refugees
and showed warmth and hospitality.
Some threw shoes and clothes over the
fence. A little girl passed her Shirley
Temple doll to another little girl who
apparently never had a doll in her life.
"There were all these acts of kind-
ness, so they did put in a scene where
two of the refugees climb under the
fence, wind up in town and go to a
restaurant and order food. When they
try to pay, the waiter says, 'No, no.
This is on me.' It's a lovely little scene
and actually happened."
Although Gruber points out that the
miniseries keeps the integrity of her
book, there were liberties taken for
dramatic effect.
For instance, Gruber never met one-
on-one with President Truman as is
shown in the film. In fact, she met
with his deputy secretary of state,
Dean Acheson, to argue that the
refugees should be kept in America.
Acheson took her documents to
Truman.
In other flashback segments, Gruber
is depicted as having a passionate affair
with a young German, a fellow gradu-
ate student, while she studied abroad
in Cologne for her doctorate, which
she received at age 20, the youngest
American at that time to do so.
Gruber says the extent of the relation-
ship was holding hands; she immedi-
ately ended it when she learned of his
Nazi leanings.
"I made two trips to Canada during
the shooting of the miniseries and
spent several days there each time,"
says Gruber, who was raised in a
"modern" Orthodox Jewish household
in Brooklyn. "My daughter. Celia
[Evans], came up with me for the first
visit, and they turned her into an •
extra, too. We heard many touching
stories from other extras who had no
idea who we were at the time."
Mother and daughter listened
intently to why the extras wanted to
be part of Haven. One was a survivor.
Another had a father killed at Dachau.
Gruber, twice widowed, takes pride
in her daughter's career in television
news production. She also is proud of
her son, David Michaels, who served
as assistant secretary for environment,
safety and health in the Department
of Energy during the Clinton adminis-
tration.
The senior journalist, who was the
first foreign correspondent to gain
entry to the Soviet Arctic and then
spent time working for the