Ruth Wendland grew up in a pastor’s family in Berlin and joined the Confessional Church in 1934. She studied theology and began working as a vicar in Berlin-Zehlendorf in October 1943.
From the summer of 1943, her mother Agnes Wendland hid the Jewish Rita Neumann. She was joined by her brother Ralph that fall. Ruth Wendland obtained food and further contacts for the siblings. In 1944 she provided a forged baptism certificate for eleven-year-old Susanne Manasse. Agnes Wendland continued to take in persecuted Jews. In the event of danger, Ruth Wendland arranged other temporary hiding places for them.
Ralph Neumann was arrested in mid-February 1945, and Rita Neumann and Agnes Wendland were also imprisoned. Ruth Wendland alarmed a relative who was a Nazi Party member. He negotiated with the Gestapo for the ailing Agnes Wendland’s release after three weeks. However, Ruth Wendland had to go to prison in her place. She was released in March 1945.
Together with Ralph Neumann, she took part in the “Uncle Emil” resistance group’s “no campaign” on April 18, 1945.
The Israeli Holocaust memorial center Yad Vashem honored Ruth Wendland as Righteous Among the Nations in 1975.