United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Josef Rosenberg (1903-1972) was born 8 June 1903 in Tuszyn, Poland to Hinda (née Lasker) and Eliezer Lipman Rosenberg. His paternal grandfather was Rabbi Hacohen Rosenberg of Strykow, Poland. Josef had three brothers, Ichiel, Srulek (d. 1978), and Shmuel; and four sisters, Mania, Chana, Chava, and Sima. His brother Ichiel and his sister Mania both passed away before the war. Josef was a businessman who owned several textile factories in Łódź. He was married to Masha Tabakman and they had a daughter, Helenka. In 1939, Josef, Masha, and Helenka were sent to the Łódź ghetto. They were deported to Auschwitz on 23 August 1944, where Masha and Helenka were killed. Josef was deported to the Hannover-Stöcken Continental-Werke, a subcamp of the Neuengamme concentration camp, in September 1944. He was then transferred to the Hannover-Ahlem subcamp. He was deported in March 1945 to Bergen-Belsen and was nearly dead at the time of liberation. All his siblings survived the war. After the war, Josef reconnected with Ruth Wolman, whom he had known from Łódź prior to the war. They were married in 1946 in Bergen-Belsen (there are also documents that date their marriage to 1949 in Frankfurt), and moved to Frankfurt am Main, Germany by 1947. Their daughter, Bella, was born in 1950. In 1952, they immigrated to the United States on board the RMS Queen Mary and settled in Forest Hills, New York. Ruth Rosenberg (born Ruchla Wolman, 1920-2014) was born on 13 February 1920 in Łódź, Poland to Israel Wolf and Dvora Bella (née Weiland) Wolman. She had five brothers, Fiszel (1918-), David (1922-), Josef (1923-), Aron, (1925-), and Szyman (1930-). Her father was a businessman and her mother was a dental technician. In 1939 Ruth and her family were sent to the Łódź ghetto, where she worked as a forced-laborer in a factory. Her family was slowly deported beginning with her brothers and then her parents. They were all killed. Ruth was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp on 22 August 1944. She remained in the camp for about ten days, and then was deported to Bremerhaven where she was a forced-laborer. She remained there for several months and then was sent on a death march to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. At Bergen-Belsen she had to move dead bodies to a mass grave. She was there approximately eight days before the camp was liberated by the English army on 15 April 1945.
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The collection is arranged as two series: Series 1: Biographical materials, 1945-1997 Series 2: Photographs, 1901-1952
The collection primarily documents the post-war experiences of Josef and Ruth Rosenberg, both of whom were from Poland, interned in the Łódź ghetto, and liberated from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp where they met and later married. The collection includes identification papers, immigration documents, restitution claims paperwork, and photographs taken at Bergen-Belsen from 1945-1947 along with some pre-war family photographs. The biographical materials include identification papers and immigration documents that both reflect their status as stateless refugees. The restitution claims paperwork for both Josef and Ruth document their Holocaust experiences and also discuss Ruth’s medical problems related to her imprisonment in several concentration camps. There are also several personal narratives of Ruth’s that describe her Holocaust experiences and give details on her family. The photographs primarily depict the Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp from 1945-1947. Included are photographs from the first anniversary of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen in 1946; other photographs taken in Bergen-Belsen with Josef, Ruth, and other survivors; and photographs of theatrical productions by the Concentration Camp Theatre of the Central Jewish Committee of Bergen-Belsen. The photograph albums contain similar and duplicate copies of the Bergen-Belsen photographs, along with a select few that depict displaced persons at the Landsberg displaced persons camp. Family photographs include Josef, Ruth, and their daughter Bella’s trip to the United States aboard the RMS Queen Mary; relatives of Ruth in the Weiland and Wolman families; and Josef’s relatives and his first wife Masha Tabakman and their daughter Helenka, both of whom perished in Auschwitz in 1944. There are also two photographs of a bakery in the Łódź ghetto and copy prints depicting
Josef and Ruth Rosenberg papers