Ruth, the first daughter of Nol and Ter, was born on 2 April 1941 in The Hague. We don't know why they gave her this Hebrew name, meaning friend, or why Ter went to The Hague for the delivery. The name suggests they were looking forward with joy to the child's arrival. There may have been various reasons why Ter left Amsterdam for the birth. Perhaps there was too much unrest in the capital. Ter's mother lived in The Hague and maybe Ter wanted her to be present at the delivery. Before the war, Ter had probably worked for a short while in this city as a nurse. She may have known a clinic or midwife who could assist with the birth. In any case, Ter and Ruth stayed for 10 days in The Hague, after which they came to the apartment on the Nieuwe Herengracht in Amsterdam.

Just as the wedding, the birth was an occasion that usually makes people happy, but now it took place at a moment which otherwise offered little to celebrate. The German armed forces consolidated their success in Western Europe, despite the setback in the Battle of Britain. In South-East Europe their armies overran the Balkan and Greece. Germany and the Soviet Union still maintained their pact, which gave Hitler a free hand in the west and Poland and presented Stalin with the chance to occupy the Baltic states and the eastern part of Poland. The pact didn't come to an end until the Germans attacked the Soviets in June 1941. In December of that year, the United States of America was drawn into the war.

In the Netherlands, the Germans pressed ahead with the separation and isolation of the Jews from the rest of the population. The measures that were aimed to accomplish segregation, usually announced by the Jewish Council, were increasingly accompanied by razzias. These raids created fear and ensured widespread obedience. The Oosteinde Home became a part of the Council machine. The Oosteinde group member Max Rubinstein, for example, was appointed as youth leader, a low-paid position, but as we shall see, it offered advantages to the resistance group.