Rose Rosman By Megan Buckalew, NTID/RIT Fall 2006 Holocaust Studies and Deaf People

Rose Rosman Child Life She was born in 1917 in Pinsk, Russia She became deaf at the age of three, from illness. She had two hearing sisters and her parents also were hearing. In 1920, they moved to Warsaw, Poland because of White Communism going on in Russia. When her parents discovered that Rose was deaf, they sent her to the best Jewish deaf school which is the Israelite School for the Deaf in East Berlin, Germany in 1923. At the Israelite School for the Deaf, they only accepted 60 students each year. They used the Oral method, so Rose spoke German, Polish, and French. It was a very strict private school that kept Kosher.

Rose’s Sweetheart In 1923, Rose met her sweetheart, Max Feld at Israelite School for the Deaf. Max Feld was born in Berlin, Germany in 1915. Max was born deaf and he had two brothers. His father was a delivery man for medications. His mother sewed raincoats for people.

Near to Death When Rose was eleven years old her appendix ruptured so she was sent to the emergency and had surgery. The doctor told her parents that she only had a 50-50 chance to live. Rose’s mother and Max came to visit her but she was throwing up at the time so the doctor told them to leave. She developed a serious infection so they put her in a “bad” room where people are dying. The doctor told her mother that he could give Rose a large dose of medication but no chance that she can make it through. Her mother told them to go for it. The infection was healing and she was released and went back to school.

Moving to France They are moving to Paris because Rose’s parents set up a new business there. Rose and her sisters were nervous that Germany would not let the Jewish people to cross the border to France. Rose’s father came up with a plan to try to get out so they rode with a famous actress so that they can hid in her big car. When the Nazis saw this car they respected the money and fame so they let the actress go and did not search the car. They arrived to France and they were safe for now.

New Life in France In 1935, they move to France. Max took the train to see Rose in 1937 during the World Fair in Paris and he stayed with her. In 1939, Rose and Max got married in Paris at Rose’s sister house. About 40-50 people came to the wedding. During that time Poland and Germany had started the war. About three months later, Rose is pregnant. She wanted to have an abortion due to worrying about Nazism and the war but Max won’t let her. Germany invaded Paris. Max’s family want to move to Columbia (South America) and asked Rose and her mother to join them but Rose’s mother was so afraid . Max stayed with Rose and let his family leave him behind in Europe.

Not Safe Anymore Max worked as a dental technician at the dentist office. The Nazis grew stronger, and started to attack Paris Rose couldn’t hear the bombing but she could feel the buildings shaking. The Nazis announced that all Jews needed to be found and reported. In May, 1941 Gestapo came to Max and Rose’s home, while Rose was breast-feeding her six month old baby girl Esther. They asked for Max and they took him away to Camp Beuve LaRolanda in Paris. About 2,000 men were sent. Rose couldn’t stay with Esther, the Germans forced her to work at her father’s factory without getting paid like she was a slave.

Close Friends Max’s friend Marcel and Marcell Demany both are deaf and non-Jewish visited them often and Marcell was willing to take care of Esther when Rose went to work until they escaped from the French police. They were very lucky to have a caring friend who would hold their things such as pictures, jewelry, etc. They asked them to hold on to it until the war is over and if they survived through it, they would collect it then.

Getting Riskier Rose’s mother paid a very high price to get false identification papers for Rose, her sister and her mother. But after two months, they were afraid to use it so they stopped. Rose, her mother and Esther visited Max three times between 1941-1942 Max and his hearing friend, Petros, escaped. They took the electric train and were about 30 miles from Rose’s Apartment. Max has been hiding in the basement. So, a few times he would come out and go find food. One day Max and L. Ungar, two deaf people were talking and Max was deported to Birkenau in 1942 and never returned. Rose’s father was deported and killed in 1942. Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp

Factory Rose worked at the factory with other woman making uniforms for the German soldier. Everytime when the needle broke they have to go ask the supervisor for a new one. They can’t break more than 5 needles a day. So when that happened the Nazis would send them outside and the wagon waited to take the women away who never came back. When they got to the fifth needle, most of them would sew very slowly and try to make it to the end of the day. Everyday there would be fewer woman in the sewing room. Example of the sewing room looks like.

Hiding One of Rose’s friends told her that she needed to start hiding. The reason is that her husband and her father were arrested. One day Rose and her mother were walking to work and they saw a French policeman standing in front of the factory. They realize that the policeman was telling them not to enter the factory. Rose and her mother went back to the apartment right away and Rose gave Esther to a French woman because they don’t want to take the baby to the hiding places. They went to one of their friend’s farmhouse and stayed there for 9 months. They lived in the farmhouse basement. After nine months, the war has lost and they realize that they are free now. So she got her baby, Esther, back.

After the War Rose went to Denay’s, their close good friends who kept their things during the WWII. She was very lucky to get her stuff back and also lucky to save all of her things. Rose and her mother spent two years in Venezuela, where they offered cheap rent and food for all survivors. Rose decided to visit New York with Esther. But there was a huge bad storm so they had to make an emergency landing in Washington D.C. and took the train to New York. Rose extended her visa to stay in the US longer and she met this man name Ted Rosman. He is hard of hearing and a Hungarian Jew. They married in 1950 and she became an American Citizen. In 1952, her mother and sister move to US also and became U.S. Citizen.

Information Living Through the Night - from World Around You Online Special on the Holocaust http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/worldaroundyou/holocaust/living.html USHMM Web Site http://www.ushmm.org/ Google images http://google.com Temple Beth Solomon of the Deaf http://www.tbsdeafjewish.org/survivors.htm