Ruta’s Closet: A Holocaust Story from Lithuania | Episode 151
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👩🏽💻 ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Keith Morgan was born in January 1954, in Blackpool, England. He began his career as a reporter for his hometown newspaper in Blackpool in 1975, moving to Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1980, where he is currently the Driving Editor, for The Province and Vancouver Sun newspapers
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Website: https://www.rutascloset.com
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On The Bookaholic Podcast, Keith Morgan discusses his book Ruta’s Closet, centered on Ruth Krone-Siegel’s family surviving the Holocaust in the Šiauliai (Shavel) Lithuania ghetto while also recounting major events in the wider ghetto. Morgan explains how his childhood friendships with Jewish classmates, his reporting career in Vancouver, and a 1997 assignment led him to Ruth’s testimony, which inspired a successful four-part newspaper series for young readers and ultimately the book. He details the ghetto’s purpose as controlled, fenced slave labor, the role of the leather factory in survival, and Ruth’s traumatic loss of her sister Tamara during the children’s roundup. The conversation highlights Lithuania’s largely unknown Holocaust history, ongoing antisemitism, the need for “never forget/never again,” and educational tools on rutascloset.com, including a study guide and book-club talking points, plus plans for youth adaptations and expanded media projects.
00:00 Welcome and Premise
00:07 Why This Story Matters
02:25 Finding Ruth’s Story
02:46 Teen Promise to Journalist
04:45 First Talk at Center
05:45 Tamara’s Heartbreak
08:11 From Series to Book
09:38 Lithuania Hidden History
10:51 Sir Martin Gilbert’s Help
13:48 Baltics and Mass Killings
17:06 What a Ghetto Was
17:58 Survival Through Work
19:41 Life Inside the Ghetto
21:03 Returning to Lithuania
21:47 Smuggling and Public Hangings
22:56 Last Words Remembered
23:52 No Trigger Warnings
25:43 Never Forget Never Again
27:56 Warnings Before Nazis
29:02 Genocide Echoes Today
30:09 Propaganda Social Media
33:33 Denial And Education
35:08 Youth Version With AI
38:45 Podcasts And New Formats
41:32 Final Thanks And Tease
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