| Notes |
- https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/232845957/ruth-sien
Ruth was born in the village of Frystak which is outside of the city of Rzeszów, in the County of Rzeszów (Maisto Rzeszów) in the Subcarpathian section (Podkarpackie) of Poland, and was a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust of the Jews. Ruth was able to "hide in plain sight" during the war, working as a maid and farm worker for a Polish widow with the help of forged papers her father obtained for her.
She and her father were the only members of their family to survive the Holocaust of Jews by the Nazis during World War II. Her mother died of pneumonia at the family home, in 1939, when Ruth was 14 years old, because Jews were prohibited from obtaining medicine. Her brother Neftali was shot to death by an SS officer in Poland during the war.
After the end of World War II, Ruth married Isaac Ressler in Bytom, Silisia, Poland. In Bamburg, Germany, she gave birth to her oldest daughter, Phyllis, in late May of 1946.
The family immigrated to the United States in 1947. They departed from Bremerhaven, Germany, on April 25, 1947 on the SS Marine Marlin and arrived in New York on May 7, 1947.
They initially lived in Newark, New Jersey and moved to a chicken egg farm in Vineland, New Jersey.
Isaac died of a heart attack in 1959, leaving Ruth to raise their 2 daughters.
In addition to the income from the sale of the eggs, Ruth worked as a seamstress, sewing draperies and slipcovers.
In June 1963, she married Michael Sien, a widower dry cleaner living in Irvington, New Jersey with his young daughter. Ruth and her daughters moved to Irvington where they lived for 2 years, after which time the entire family moved to Colonia, New Jersey. Michael purchased his own dry cleaning store and Ruth worked there doing all of the tailoring and alterations that their customers requested.
They sold their CPA firm (Cleaning, Pressing, and Alterations) in 1980 and decided to purchase a retirement home in central New Jersey in 1982 where they were active in the planned "active adult" community as well as in the formation of the conservative synagogue.
She sewed, knit, crotched, did needlepoint, and was a great baker.
Ruth died of colon cancer on October 15, 1999 after a valiant two-year battle against the disease.
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1925 - 1999 (74 years)
