Ruth Kluger (1931-2020) was a literary scholar, memoirist, and a professor emerita of German at the University of California, Irvine. She previously taught at Princeton University and the University of Virginia, and was a guest professor in Gottingen, Germany, and elsewhere in Europe. As the author of five books of literary criticism, she also studied English literature, obtained a master's degree in 1952, and a PhD in 1967. Dr. Kluger survived internment at Auschwitz, fleeing a death march in 1945, eventually immigrating to New York, and beginning her lifelong work in academia and writing. After an accident-related days-long coma, Dr. Kluger was moved to recall long-repressed memories of the war, which served as the impetus for her memoir, Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered.

Praise for Still Alive
"A startling, clear-eyed, and unflinching examination of growing up as a Jewish girl during the Holocaust. . . . A deeply moving and significant work that raises vital questions about cultural representations of the Holocaust and searches for what it means to be a survivor." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Stunning contemplation of human relationships, power, and the creation of history through the prism of one woman's Holocaust survival. . . . Kluger dives in and out of her narrative to consider such topics as her imperfect relationship with her family, her creation of herself as a social being, and the encounters and relationships she's had with Germans since the war. . . . A work of such nuance, intelligence, and force that it leaps the bounds of genre."--Kirkus (starred review)
"A stunning autobiography, charting the blurred borders of a child, a daughter, a woman . . . a scholar, and a Jew." --Booklist
"An unforgettable example of humanity." --Le Monde
"Deftly combining her own compelling narrative with a rigorous commentary . . . adds a spirited and original voice to . . . Holocaust literature." --Library Journal
"A book of breathtaking honesty and extraordinary insight." --Los Angeles Times Book Review
"One of the ten best books of 2001. . . . Extraordinary. . . . Amazing. . . . Among the reasons that Still Alive is such an important book is its insistence that the full texture of women's existence in the Holocaust be acknowledged, not merely as victims. . . . [Kluger] insists that we look at the Holocaust as honestly as we can, which to her means being unsentimental about the oppressed as well as about their oppressors." --Washington Post Book World
"A literary autobiography as extraordinary as it is refined, [Still Alive] rightfully belongs . . . side by side with the works of Primo Levi, Elie Wiesel, and Imre Kertesz." --L'Unita (Italy)

Publisher: Feminist Press

Pub date: 2003-04-01

Length: 216 pages