Rita Clausen 92, Salinas

Rita Clausen led a principled life.

Imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, she refused to comply with commands to say “Heil Hitler!” even if it meant she missed out on that day’s rations of bread and water.

The muddy water that Clausen drank to survive gave her diphtheria, but she persisted in her resolve.

“She said things the way they were,” Clausen’s daughter Judy said, “and she wasn’t bashful about anything.”

Growing up an elite swimmer in Germany, Clausen was nominated to compete in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. But her parents refused because they were horrified by the racially motivated ideology of Adolf Hitler, who eventually would be central to the atrocities of the Holocaust.

Clausen was released from the concentration camp only when her diphtheria required hospitalization. She moved to Northern California in 1947, not long after the war’s end, and married a U. S. serviceman.

Together the Clausens raised six children and scores of foster children who f litted in and out of their Salinas home at any given moment. Clausen also worked in the packing industry, making boxes for cartons of lettuce.

She was a lifelong caregiver for her family until her death April 7 at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital from complications related to COVID- 19. She was 92.

Clausen had fallen ill with breathing problems that required hospitalization. Judy said she was not able to bid farewell to her mother because of lockdown rules in the area.

“It was during the time when everybody had to stay home,” Judy said, “so we weren’t able to say goodbye to her or see her or do anything.”

Before her illness, Clausen continued to swim well into her 80s, before a downturn in her health forced her to move into a nursing home.

“She swam every day of her life practically,” Judy said. “Anywhere she could swim, she would swim.”

Clausen also had a love of old movies that she watched over and over, particularly “Gone With the Wind.”

She is survived by two sisters, Honey Horsley and Edith Loudermilk; five children, Judy, Dan, Ray, David and Bruce; and numerous grandchildren and great- grandchildren.

“She took care of us very well,” Judy said. “She was a good mom.”