Ruth Westheimer. known around the world for her frank talk on sex and sexuality, has died in her New York home. A Holocaust survivor and Israeli sniper in her youth, she achieved fame as a radio host in the US.

Best-selling author and sex therapist Ruth Westheimer, better known simply as Dr. Ruth, died on Friday aged 96 in her home in New York City. She passed away in the company of her family, according to her publicist and friend Pierre Lehu.

Westheimer, a pop cultural phenomenon in 1980s America, was loved by fans for her straight talk about the tabu subject of sexuality, becoming a household name with her own syndicated radio and television shows. Though most remember the tiny matron as a , her life before fame was complex and marked by tragedy. Surviving the Holocaust and fighting for Israeli independence Born in Wiesenfeld, Germany, on June 4, 1928, Karola Ruth Siegel was the only child of two Orthodox parents.

At the age of 10, in the wake of the previously known as Kristallnacht, her father was apprehended by the and taken to a concentration camp. Soon thereafter, her mother and grandmother set her on a train bound for Switzerland, where she was given refuge in an orphanage. It was the last time she would see any of her family.

When the ended, she left for what was then British-mandated Palestine at the age of 16, where she trained for military action as part of an underground Zionist group known as the Haganah, which was fighting for statehood. She became a sniper du.