Ruth Nathan, a native of Essen, was the mother of Ellen Nathan, who is also recorded in this Memorial Book.

Ruth Nathan grew up in Essen in her parent’s home. When she was twelve years old, she moved to Brakel in Königstraße 2, where Wilhelm Stein lived with his wife, Sophie, née Nathan, probably Ruth's aunt. For what reason Wilhelm and Sophie Stein received the adolescent niece is not known. Perhaps Ruth's mother had died. In the next few years, Ruth's life is determined by many changes of place. However, she always returned to Brakel. Ruth had probably completed the elementary school in Brakel and subsequently worked as a household assistant in various positions in Germany.

In August 1937, the 22-year-old pregnant Ruth Nathan found inclusion in the Neu-Isenburg Home of the Jewish Women’s Association. On October 25, she gave birth to her daughter Ellen in Frankfurt am Main, presumably in the Jewish Hospital at Gagernstraße 36. After Ellen's birth, the mother and daughter lived two more months in „Heim Isenburg“. According to the files of the Neu-Isenburg local police authority and the Home list, Ellen stayed ten days longer than her mother. Ruth and Ellen did not live together in Frankfurt. At the time of the census of 1939, Ellen was reported to the children's home of "Weibliche Fürsorge" in Frankfurt am Main (Volker Mahnkopp: Documentary on persecuted persons in the Frankfurt Children's Home of the Female Care, Hans-Thoma-Strasse 24, unpublished manuscript).

Ruth Nathan married Herbert Bierhoff, who originated from Borgentreich (Höxter district), at a time which is not known. He was born on June 19, 1903, as the son of the cattle trader Victor Bierhoff and his wife Regina. Herbert probably worked like his father as a merchant. When Herbert Bierhoff left his hometown of Borgentreich, it is still unclear. Possibly he escaped, as many Jews from rural communities, under the pressure of discrimination and violence 1938/39 into the city. Ruth and Herbert Bierhoff probably married in 1939. After the wedding, Ruth's daughter Ellen bore the surname Bierhoff and lived with her parents. Whether Herbert Bierhoff was Ellen's father or whether he adopted the child from his wife's previous relationship is uncertain.

The family lived until 1941 in Kassel. In mid-February 1939 Ruth was reported to be at Wilhelmshöher Allee 9, from September 12, 1939, together with Herbert Bierhoff, in the house “Tränkepforte 1,” and finally, from October 1, 1939, to Obergasse 35. “Tränkepforte 1” was a ghetto house. Ruth's daughter Ellen was also registered in house “Oberste Gasse” 35 on January 5, 1940.

On December 9, 1941, Herbert, Ruth and Ellen Bierhoff were deported from Kassel to the Riga ghetto. The family lived there for several years. With the closure of the ghetto, Ruth Bierhoff was transferred to the Riga-Kaiserwald concentration camp in 1943. When the Red Army approached in 1944, it was transferred to Stutthof concentration camp near Gdansk. Her daughter Ruth and her husband Herbert no longer lived at this time (see the entry to Ellen Nathan in this Memorial Book).

As far as the historical sources allow conclusions to be drawn, Ruth Bierhoff’s track is lost in Riga. Ruth's fellow prisoners from the Riga ghetto, Sigi Ziering, who survived the Holocaust and later wrote a fictional but probably essentially authentic play about the fate of the Bierhoff family (compare the entry to Ellen Nathan in this Memorial Book), depicts Ruth's fate differently after which Ruth Bierhoff was deported to the Stutthof concentration camp in 1944 when the Riga-Kaiserwald concentration camp was evacuated. This action is historically proven. In the Stutthof concentration camp, Ruth was liberated by the Red Army in May 1945. Ruth Bierhoff, however, had been severely affected by typhoid fever and died a little later at the age of 29 years.

This Memorial Book entry could be completed by the support of Fritz Ostkämper, Jacob-Pins-Gesellschaft, Höxter.: