Jewish refugee who joined RAF aged 17 finally awarded wartime medals at 101
Ruth Klauber fled Nazi Germany and became a flight mechanic in Britain’s air defence effort but never sought recognition for her role, until now
A Jewish woman who escaped Nazi Germany as a child and later became a wartime RAF mechanic has finally received two medals for her service, more than 80 years after joining Britain’s air defences.
Ruth Klauber, born in Frankfurt in 1924, was just nine years old when her family fled to Britain following Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. Now aged 101, she has been awarded the UK War Medal and the UK Defence Medal in recognition of her work with the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) during the Second World War.
Klauber’s decision to enlist came in 1941, two years after Britain entered the war. Although she was offered more traditional women’s roles at the time, including cook or batwoman, she opted to train as a flight mechanic.
Speaking publicly about her wartime experiences for the first time, Klauber told the Telegraph, “I could have been a cook… and I thought, no thank you. They said, ‘Well, you can be a flight mechanic.’ And I thought, this would be interesting. I’ll go for that.”
Following intensive training in welding, hydraulics and woodworking, she was posted to RAF Sleap in Shropshire. There, she was tasked with inspecting, repairing and refuelling aircraft, starting with Wellington bombers before moving on to larger Halifax and Lancaster planes used in Allied bombing campaigns over Germany.
Her background as a Jewish refugee from Germany never raised concerns, she said. “They didn’t know my history. 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.”
Klauber credited her late father, Benjamin Bendix, with recognising the danger Hitler posed early on. “He read Mein Kampf,” she said. “He believed the man meant what he said.”
The family left Germany the day after the 1933 election, travelling first to Belgium and then settling in the UK. “A lot of people thought it would blow over,” she said. “I’m forever grateful to my parents for taking the longer view and not being seduced into that way of thinking.”
Reflecting on the day they left, she recalled, “It was all very tense. We weren’t really allowed to speak. I remember feeling that I would never be happy again.”
Despite her vital contribution to the war effort, Klauber never applied for medals at the time, believing her role wasn’t exceptional. “I felt it was very important to make a contribution towards the war against Hitler and the Nazis,” she said. “I didn’t think I felt that all this required medals.”
It was her daughter, Sue Klauber, who recently contacted the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women (AJEX) to see if her mother was still eligible. The organisation confirmed she was entitled to both medals and arranged for her to receive original versions earlier this month.
“She could have not done anything at all during the war,” said Sue, a historical novelist who has written about her family’s wartime experiences. “But she chose to do something completely counter to her character. I think she was incredibly courageous and deserves to be acknowledged for that.”
The former psychotherapist has since been invited to No. 10 Downing Street and Buckingham Palace in honour of her service.
“We had been given a new life in this country,” said Klauber. “It was important to do something for the country and against Hitler.”
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