A Holocaust survivor who dedicated her life to raising awareness about the horrors her family endured before moving to Canada has received a special honour in Vancouver.
The City of Vancouver proclaimed April 9 Ruth Kron Sigal day to recognize her efforts to ensure younger generations know about the atrocities against Jewish people in Lithuania during the Second World War.
Sigal died in December 2008 at age 72 but the story of her life in the Shavl Ghetto lives on in a new edition of her memoir, called “Ruta’s Closet,” first published posthumously in 2011.
The book’s author Keith Morgan says he’s pleased to see Sigal’s life celebrated as Holocaust Remembrance Day approaches April 24 and as he re-releases her book with additional research and plans for a companion website and podcast.
“Ruta’s Closet” was first published by the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, where Sigal gave much of her time as a speaker and storyteller at educational events. The centre sent about 2,000 copies throughout the province as a fundraiser, and a year later, Morgan found a publisher in the U.K. for a mostly British run.
Morgan says he promised Sigal on her deathbed that he would complete her book and is pleased to see a third edition now bound for the United States, United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
"I keep re-enacting in my own head when she said to me: 'You are going to do this, aren't you?'" says Morgan, reached by phone in Vancouver.
“I had to do this. I'm not Jewish. It became my mission in life. It really did, and so I just carried on with it. I just don't see an end to it. As long as I'm alive, I'm going to carry on doing this and exploring.”
Morgan traces the book’s origins to 1997 when he was a journalist at the Vancouver Province newspaper and wrote a column about Sigal. In 2000, he joined her and her husband for a trip to Lithuania, which sparked research for a four-part educational series that appeared in the Province that October.
Morgan says that in addition to relying on Sigal's account, "Ruta's Closet" draws from an unpublished memoir by her father, the details of which Morgan verified through other sources and interviews with survivors around the world.
Since publication, more bits of information have come to light, making the book an ever-evolving project.
"And that's continued to happen over the years. You know, people have contacted me and told me this, and told me that," Morgan says.
“I get the feeling that in about another five years, I'll have the full story.”
He's also gratified to see support for Sigal continue, noting he plans to say a few words in her honour at the City of Vancouver's declaration of Ruth Kron Sigal day.
"It's really good to know this is carrying on the way it is, and it's good to see the support.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 9, 2025.
Cassandra Szklarski, The Canadian Press
