My mother, Ruth Brook-Klauber, who has died aged 102, was a flight mechanic during the second world war. In the postwar years she became head of the University Library academic book series published by Hutchinson & Co (now part of Random House) and later still trained as a relationship therapist.
She was born in Frankfurt am Main in Germany, the younger daughter of Benjamin Bendix (“Benno”), a paint pigments salesman, and Rosa (nee Ehrentreu). When Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933, Benno had the foresight to anticipate the coming persecution of Jews and removed the family to London, settling in Hackney.
