She was a foster child in Zurich in 1938, after running away from her parents when she refused to return to Germany.
[6] Rappaport obtained an American visa and went to Seattle in 1938 to live with her uncle, Carl Rubinstein.
She then moved to New York and worked for lawyer Max Lowenthal and assisted him with the publication of his book, The Federal Bureau of Investigation, in 1950.
[10] In 2006 she became a founding member of Capitol Hill Village, an organization created to help seniors age in place.
[12] Most of her papers are held at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum;[13] there is also the Ruth Rappaport Collection at the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center[9] and "Ruth Rappaport papers, 1946-1957" at the University of Washington Special Collections.