Gardy-Kate Ruder (born 1954 in

Lahr Lahr (officially Lahr/Schwarzwald since 30 September 1978) (); ) is a city in western Baden-Württemberg, Germany, approximately 50 km north of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, 40 km southeast of Strasbourg, and 95 km southwest of Ka ...

in the

Black Forest The Black Forest ( ) is a large forested mountain range in the States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is th ...

of Germany) is a German author and teacher who is now based in

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

. She writes about the victims of the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

. She originally worked as a teacher in primary and secondary schools. She integrated the story of her grandmother Katharina, who was killed in the

extermination camp Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe, primarily in occupied Poland, during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocau ...

Grafeneck Grafeneck is a small rural village in the Germany, German municipality of Gomadingen, south of Stuttgart. World War II history Grafeneck Castle, which had previously been an asylum for crippled people, was turned by the Nazism, Nazis into an e ...

, into her own biography. This book, Katharina Ketterer - victim of "euthanasia", has changed her life. Since 1999 she has written for local newspapers. In 2003, she realized in Lahr the project "

Stolperstein A (; plural ) is a concrete cube bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution. Literal translation, Literally, it means 'stumbling stone' and metaphorically 'stumbling block'. ...

e" of the artist Gunter Demnig, who lives in Koeln, in her own birth town and in the one of her grandmother Katharina. Writing gave her the possibility to clear up structures of ignoring German History, finding a form to accept what really happened.

References

*Gardy-Käthe Ruder, Holocaust im Gedächtnis einer Puppe. Unterwegs auf Lebensspuren von und mit Inge Auerbacher. Deutscher Wissenschafts-Verlag, Baden-Baden 2006. *Gabriel Richter (Hg.), Die Fahrt ins Graue(n), die Heil- und Pflegeanstalt

Emmendingen Emmendingen (; ) is a town in Baden-Württemberg, capital of the Emmendingen (district), district Emmendingen of Germany. It is located at the Elz (Rhine), Elz River, north of Freiburg im Breisgau. The town contains more than 26,000 residents, ...

1933 - 1945 - und danach, zweite durchgesehene und erweiterte Auflage 2005: Gardy Ruder, Katharina Ketterer - ein Opfer der "Euthanasie" geboren am 21. November 1898 in Lahr, ermordet am 26. November 1940 in

, S. 323. *Der Ortenaukreis (Hg.) Geroldsecker Land, Jahrbuch einer Landschaft, Heft 46, 2004, Gardy Ruder, Ein "Stolperstein" für Lili Reckendorf, S. 63
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German historians of the Holocaust 1954 births Living people German women writers German schoolteachers {{Germany-writer-stub