‘I escaped the Nazis then fixed Lancaster Bombers for the RAF. Eighty years on, I have my medal'

Telegraph

12-04-2025

She was just nine years old when her father told her to start packing.
It was the spring of 1933 and the Nazis had recently swept to power when the family of Ruth Klauber née Bendix left their native Germany and fled to Britain.
Within a decade, after arriving not knowing a word of English, she worked for the RAF helping to repair the Lancaster bombers that helped the Allies win the Second World War.
Now 101, she has finally been recognised for her services in the form of a war and defence medal – and has been invited to Buckingham Palace and No 10 to mark the honour.
Ms Klauber did not apply for medals when the war ended because she felt what she had done was 'not exceptional'.
She said: 'I felt it was very important to make a contribution towards the war against Hitler and the Nazis. I didn't think I felt that all this required medals.'
The idea of checking if she was still eligible for medals came from her daughter, Sue Klauber, who contacted the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women (Ajex) earlier this month.
Ajex confirmed that she was indeed entitled and got hold of original versions of the medals.
Speaking publicly about her experience during the war for the first time, Ms Klauber said: 'We had been given a new life in this country. It was important to do something for the country and against Hitler.'
The retired psychotherapist was born to an observant Jewish family in Frankfurt in 1924. Her father, Benjamin, was a worldly 'wise' businessman who anticipated the threat of Hitler before many others.
'He read Mein Kampf,' Ms Klauber said. 'He believed the man meant what he said.' If Hitler came to power, he decided, the family would have to leave.
On a Saturday morning after the Nazis won the 1933 election, she was told they would not be going to synagogue for the Jewish sabbath as was their custom. Instead, they would pack up and get on a train to Belgium to see how the situation in Germany would unfold. After three months, they left for Britain.
'A lot of people thought it would blow over,' Ms Klauber said. 'I'm forever grateful to my parents for taking the longer view and not being seduced into that way of thinking.'
Saying goodbye was the hardest. 'It was all very tense. We weren't really allowed to speak. I remember feeling that I would never be happy again.'
She and her sister Hannah were booked into a separate cabin from their parents on the train leaving Germany, but Benjamin took the girls into his and told them not to leave.
In 1941, the 'bookish and academic'17-year-old was now settled in England and decided she wanted to join the war effort.
'I could have been a cook and I thought, no thank you', she said. 'I could have been a batwoman – someone who looks after officers' uniforms – and I said, no, I can't do that. And they said, 'Well, you can be a flight mechanic'. And I thought, this would be interesting. I'll go for that.'
Before starting her RAF training in 1942, Ms Klauber did not so much as know how to hold a spanner. But after four months of classes on welding, woodwork, splicing and hydraulics, she was became a mechanic at RAF Sleap in Shropshire.
Daily jobs involved inspecting, repairing and refuelling the bombers.
At first she mainly worked on the lighter Wellington bombers before moving on to Halifax and Lancaster aircraft.
Ms Klauber's fellow mechanics were mostly men from heavy industry, but it didn't matter. 'There was never any attempt to put me down or any improper suggestions of any sort,' she said.
The one difference was that it was the men who were asked to go out with pilots on test flights to make sure the repairs had been properly done.
'But I loved flying in those days,' Ms Klauber said. 'I always got myself a parachute and would ask the pilot if it's OK to come. He always said yes.'
Were they suspicious of her being a German-born Jew?
'They didn't know my history,' she said: 'I was entirely for this country. Never for a moment did I have any regrets about not being back in Germany. I refused to speak German during the war.'
Last week, Ms Klauber was given two medals in recognition of her service in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force.
Sue Klauber, who has also written two historical novels, Zinc and Cobalt, about her father and uncle's respective experiences as a codebreaker and special forces soldier during the war, said: 'She could have not done anything at all during the war, but she chose to do something completely counter to her character.
'I think she was incredibly courageous and deserves to be acknowledged for that.'