Sex Therapist in the USA - Dr. Ruth: Famous sex therapist Ruth Westheimer is dead
Ruth Westheimer was only 1.44 meters tall. But if size were measured in courage, determination, and hard work, this little woman should have been 2.50 meters tall, wrote "Newsday" once. Born in Germany, Westheimer survived the Holocaust and became in the USA the most famous sex therapist in the world as "Dr. Ruth." On a Friday, at the age of 96, Westheimer died in the presence of her two children, confirmed spokesperson Pierre Lehu to the German Press Agency dpa.
Last year, Westheimer presented herself full of energy. In Cleveland in the US state of Ohio, there was a theater piece about her life. In 2020, the documentary "Ask Dr. Ruth" was released, and just before that, German General Consul David Gill had awarded her the Federal Cross of Merit in New York. Westheimer had an "adventurous, incredibly colorful life" and "enriched society," said Gill at the time.
Her parents were murdered in Auschwitz.
Karola Ruth Siegel was born in 1928 in Wiesenfeld near Frankfurt in a Jewish family. At ten years old, just before the outbreak of World War II, she was taken to Switzerland with a children's transport. She escaped the Holocaust, but she never saw her parents and beloved grandmother again. Her parents were murdered by the National Socialists in the Auschwitz concentration camp.
After the war, as a teenager, Ruth moved to Palestine, was trained as a sharpshooter, and fought in the underground for a free Israel. She was severely injured by a grenade. After that, she began her studies at the Sorbonne in Paris. A check from the German government for 5,000 marks to compensate for suffering allowed her to emigrate to the USA in 1956. There, she continued her studies, married Manfred Westheimer, and had two children. In 1965, she became a US citizen.
Breakthrough with Radio-Show in the 80s
Westheimer made a breakthrough in the early 80s with a radio show. With a tickling Rumpelstiltskin chuckle, "Dr. Ruth" gave sex tips and juggled without any inhibitions with terms like ejaculation and masturbation. The 15-minute question-and-answer program "Sexually Speaking" on a New York local radio station led to invitations from television stations around the world. Hundreds of thousands sought the advice of the maternal expert in anonymity. "Her name and the distinctive sound of her voice are inseparable from the topic of sex," wrote the "New York Times" once.
"The questions are all the same," Westheimer once told the German Press Agency. Every country boasts about having the better lovers. I couldn't name a world's best. Pure "nonsense" is also the image of supposedly so puritanical America in comparison to a sexually much freer Europe. More than 30 sex advice books have Westheimer written, many of which have been published in German.
Every year, she returned to Frankfurt for the book fair.
"Dr. Ruth" returned to her hometown Frankfurt every year for the book fair. "I make a big detour around the station. But in my old apartment in Brahmsstraße 8, in Nordend, I looked back one more time," she once told. "It's difficult for me, but I go proudly and with a straight back. Hitler didn't win! He wanted me to die. Instead, I now have children and grandchildren. It was a flight then. Now I sleep in the Frankfurt Hotel." Who would have thought that?
Still on her 95th birthday, she answered the question on how she managed to stay fit and cheerful: "My secret is that I ask myself every day: What can I do tonight? And then I call someone and we do something." She no longer owns a car but hails taxis instead, and she organizes all her appointments via phone, she said back then. "I don't use email, but I call all day long."
- Despite her small stature, Ruth Westheimer's courage, determination, and work ethic were commended during the Second World War, highlighted by news outlet "Newsday".
- Born as Karola Ruth Siegel in Germany, Ms. Westheimer survived the Holocaust by being sent to Switzerland as a child before the start of the Second World War.
- In Cleveland, Ohio, a theater piece was dedicated to Westheimer's life last year, honoring her impact on society.
- Germane to her achievements, David Gill, the German General Consul in New York, awarded her the Federal Cross of Merit in 2020.
- Westheimer's parents were among the countless victims of the National Socialists' atrocities, being murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp.
- After the war, Westheimer moved to Palestine and became a trained sharpshooter, eventually emigrating to the United States in 1956.
- With her candid radio show titled "Sexually Speaking," Dr. Ruth gained widespread popularity in the early 1980s, discussing taboo subjects with ease and professionalism.
- Ruth Westheimer's fame continued to grow, leading to several television appearances and numerous sex advice books, many of which were translated and published in Germany.
- Switzerland played a significant role in Westheimer's survival during the Second World War, as she was a part of a children's transport to the European country before the war began.
- Following her death at the age of 96, tributes poured in from all corners of the world, reflecting on Dr. Ruth's unparalleled influence on the history of mental health and sexual education, particularly in the United States of America.
