Ruth Weinmann's Last Visit to Relatives in Sandersdorf, July 8, 1947

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After Ruth made the decision to move back to the United States. there was much to be done. First she had to visit the American embassy in Berlin to apply for a U.S. passport. Her aunt Johanna Weinmann Schietzsch held a position with the government that provided her with a car and a chauffeur, so she offered to drive Ruth to Berlin. As few of her relatives had automobiles, this marked the first and only time that Ruth traveled on the Autobahn.

At the embassy she was helped by American Vice Consul Parker D. Wyman. He requested a limited passport that only permitted traveling to the United States during the window of May 22 to September 22, rather than a full U.S. passport that could be used to travel freely to various countries. Perhaps this was done to make it less valuable to a person who might think of trying to steal it. When her passport was ready in May, Mr. Wyman told her that she should not pick it up and take it back to her home in the Russian sector of Germany. Instead he recommended that she pick it up from the embassy when she was ready to depart.

Three days before her scheduled departure, Ruth and Bertha traveled to Sanderdorf so that Ruth could say her goodbyes to her Weinmann relatives. All of the photographs below were taken on that visit. They picture Ruth, her mother, her grandfather Andreas Weinmann, her step-grandmother Anna Weinmann, and her aunt Johanna Weinmann Schietzsch.

Andreas and Ruth; Anna and Andreas; Anna and Ruth (with Lora the parrot)