Ruth Lustig, 1926 - 2025
An Obituary
Anyone who has seen the wonderful film about Ruth Lustig at the Museum Lüneburg may remember the scene: as an elderly lady, having lived in Israel for decades, she visits the Einhorn Pharmacy on Am Sande in 2013 — just as she had as a child in the 1930s — and suddenly feels transported back in time. Instinctively, she is disappointed that no one greets her with joy as they once did when she, the dentist’s little daughter, came and went freely in the pharmacy: I’m Ruth Marx — don’t you recognize me?
Ruth Lustig, née Marx, was born in Lüneburg in 1926. Her mother Tony’s family had been living in Lüneburg since the 1860s: at that time, Ruth’s great-grandfather Theodor Philipp came to the town as a young religious teacher. He would remain for over forty years, becoming the backbone and steady presence of the synagogue community, a confidant and chess partner of Marcus Heinemann, and the founder of a Lüneburg family line. His son, Ruth’s grandfather Semmy Philipp, studied dentistry and settled in the town of his childhood. Naturally, Semmy’s daughter Tony worked in the practice as well and married a dentist: Paul Marx, who came from southern Germany and became his father-in-law’s junior partner. Life was good in those days — the practice thrived and was much loved. Ruth and her little sister Ellen were born, two sweet, bright-eyed princesses who grew up in a large modern house in the Rotes Feld district. They enjoyed a carefree childhood, with frequent visits to the spa gardens, cheerful birthday parties, and costume celebrations. In 1933, Ruth started school on Wilschenbrucher Weg. It was only then that she realized she came from a Jewish family — and that this meant she was now considered “different,” excluded and shunned.
For Ruth Lustig, Lüneburg was the place of her fairy-tale childhood — and at the same time, of her first deep sorrow. The Nazis mobilized against everything Jewish, not least against Jewish doctors. Under pressure, Ruth’s parents had to sell their house on Kefersteinstraße and move in with the grandparents on Ilmenaustraße. The Philipp/Marx family reacted quickly — faster than many others — and left Nazi Germany in 1936 for Palestine, where dentists were needed. The Lüneburgers were even able to take part of their equipment with them and soon opened a new practice — now in Haifa on Mount Carmel instead of in Lüneburg on the Ilmenau, cramped in their own apartment instead of in spacious modern offices. It was a harsh break for the family; the generosity and ease of their Lüneburg life were gone. Semmy Philipp’s wife Flora had died of a heart attack just before boarding the ship in Hamburg, and the family had to bury her there under great pressure. Semmy’s sister remained in Hamburg with her husband and children; they were unable to emigrate and were later deported and murdered.
Ahead of Ruth and her family lay difficult years of starting over in a foreign land. The adults struggled in Haifa with the language, the climate, material hardship, and constant worry for their relatives in Germany. For ten-year-old Ruth, it was a deep upheaval, but by her own account also an adventure: she soon made friends, learned Hebrew effortlessly, and after a while felt completely at home in Palestine, later Israel. She worked in a dental clinic, married the technician Dan Lustig, and had two sons with him.
In 1995, she was part of a group of Jewish former Lüneburg residents who accepted the city’s invitation to visit. For the book Jewish Families in Lüneburg by Sibylle Bollgöhn, she wrote down her memories:
“They ask me what comes to mind when I think of Lüneburg. The answer will probably surprise you, or perhaps you cannot understand it: an old, beautiful town where I had a wonderful childhood. And precisely because of that, I feel great anger that all of this could have happened.”
When the new museum in Lüneburg was planned in the 2010s, a film was made about Ruth Lustig and her conflicted feelings toward the city. She traveled once more to her hometown, together with her son Gideon. It would be her last visit. She would have liked to attend the inauguration of the synagogue memorial in 2018 despite being 92, but instead sent her two adult granddaughters. Still, she was present electronically from her retirement home in Haifa: via video call, Ruth guided her granddaughters to the house on Kefersteinstraße — and then, insisting firmly, over to the spa gardens and the graduation tower, where they had to fill a small bottle with brine for her. All her life, she longed for that taste of her childhood.
Ruth Lustig, née Marx, was one of the last eyewitnesses of Lüneburg’s prewar Jewish community. We are deeply grateful that she shared her memories — and her anger — with us. On September 25, 2025, one day before her 99th birthday, she passed away in Haifa. Until the end, she remained mentally sharp and full of humor. She will be missed.
(Anneke de Rudder, November 4, 2025))