Life History: Ruth Rives, 1998
A Guide to the Collection of Oral History Interviews at Indiana University
Bloomington
Finding aid prepared by the staff of the Center for
the Study of History and Memory with a grant from the National Endowment for the
Humanities Division of Preservation and Access, 2000-2002
Overview of the Collection
Repository
Indiana University Center for the Study of History and Memory
Indiana University
400 North Sunrise Drive
Weatherly Hall North, Room 122
Bloomington, IN 47405
Phone: 812/855-2856
Fax: 812/855-0002
E-mail: ohrc@indiana.edu
http://www.indiana.edu/~cshm
Creator
Indiana University Center for the
Study of History and Memory
TitleLife History: Ruth Rives, 1998
Project No.
ohrc074
Interviews
1 interview. Audiotapes, transcripts, and collateral
materials.
Physical Location
Interviews are housed in Weatherly Hall North, Room
122. Copies are also housed at the Indiana University Archives in Herman B Wells
Library E460. For other locations housing the interviews from this project, please
contact the Center for the Study of History and Memory office.
Language
Materials are in English
Abstract
Ruth Rives discusses her life history growing up in Germany during
the World War II era. She speaks of her family and living environment, and the
confusion, fear, and hardships she faced. She speaks of the experiences of her
young adult life nursing, doing missionary work in Iran, and immigrating to the
United States. She talks about her life as it unfolded in America and her
return trips to Germany.
Scope and Content Note
This collection contains one interview. The interview is 140 minutes and consists of audio tapes and a typed transcripts,
as well as collateral materials.
Administrative Information
Acquisition Information
Oral history interviews conducted by the Indiana University Center for the
Study of History and Memory from 1968 to the present, with particular focus on the
history of twentieth-century America and the Midwest.
Usage Restrictions
The archive of the Center for the Study of History and Memory at Indiana
University is open to the use of researchers. Copies of transcript pages are
available only when such copies are permitted by the deed of gift signed by the
interviewee. Scholars must honor any restrictions the interviewee placed on the
use of the interview. Since some of our earlier (pre-computer) transcripts do
not exist in final form, any editing marks in a transcript (deletions,
additions, corrections) are to be quoted as marked. Tapes may not be copied for
patrons unless the deed of gift permits it, and a transcript is unavailable for
that interview. The same rules of use that apply to a transcript apply to the
taped interview. Interviews may not be reproduced in full for any public use,
but excerpted quotes may be used as long as researchers fully cite the data in
their research, including accession number, interview date, interviewee's and
interviewer's name, and page(s).
Preferred Citation
[interviewee first name last name] interview, by [interviewer first name last
name], [interview date(s)], [call number], [project name], Center for the Study
of History and Memory, Indiana University, Bloomington, [page number(s) or tape
number and side if no transcript].
Interview List
Interviewee
Rives, Ruth
August 7, 1998;
August 12,1998
Call Number
98-030
Physical Description
103 pages; 4 tapes, 1 7/8 ips., 140 minutes; index;
interview questionnaire, interviewee's resumé, article on Berlin, Germany
Interviewer
Truesdell, Barbara
Access Status
Open
Scope and Content Note
Ruth Rives, a.k.a. Waltraud Zekorn, born on May 12 1932, shares
her life story. She speaks a great deal about her family members in Germany,
including her grandmother, her aunt, her mother and father, and later her step-
father, step-brother, and step-sister. She discusses her early life and
education in Germany before, during, and after World War II. She recalls
apartment life in Berlin, food and food rations, and the treatment of children.
She recalls the beginning of the war, the bombing, her family's forced
evacuation, and the hardships and confusion of the time [especially for a
child]. She talks about her return to Berlin, the blockade and airlift, and
becoming a nurse before traveling to Iran as missionary with her first husband.
Again, she returned to Berlin, married an American soldier [though it was
looked down upon], and immigrated to the United States. She discusses forming a
family in America and struggling to make ends meet. Rives talks about her
family today and all that she has experienced and learned in America. She
discusses her American citizenship, and her return trips to Germany.
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Keywords
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Family Names
- Rives
- Zekorn
- Zündorf
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Personal Names
- Zündorf, Arthur
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Place Names
- Alabama
- Berlin, Germany
- Houston, Texas
- Iran
- Russia
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Subjects
- Berlin blockade
- blood bank
- education
- family
- immigration
- missionary work
- rations
- World War II
