This is the wedding photograph of Rosa Rosenstein (née Braw) and Maximillian Weisz. The wedding took place in Berlin, Germany in 1929. Maximillian (Michi) is wearing a black top hat and a tuxedo with a white tie and boutonnière and is holding white gloves in his right hand. Rosa is wearing a white, lace wedding gown that is mid-floor length. Her embroidered veil reaches the floor and is gathered around her feet. She is holding a bouquet of flowers. The overall look of the bride and groom is one of style and elegance.
Rosa Rosenstein gave an interview to Centropa about her family history. Rosa’s family was originally from Poland, so they never considered themselves German. They were religious and Zionists, and she recalls observing many different Jewish customs. Rosa went to a Jewish school, all of her friends were Jewish, and her family didn’t have much contact with the non-Jewish community. She describes a happy, carefree life. The family was financially comfortable, and Rosa remembers spending her summers with family and friends in an apartment they rented near a lake. In 1929 Rosa married Maximillian (Michi) Weisz, a young man from Hungary, and they subsequently had two daughters. After Hitler came to power in 1933, all the members of Rosa’s family, except for Rosa, moved to pre-state Israel at separate times; Rosa, Michi, and their daughters moved to Hungary. As the situation for Jews worsened, Rosa sent her daughters to live with her sister and brother-in-law in pre-state Israel. Rosa was sent to an internment camp, but after Michi died in a labour camp in Ukraine, she was allowed to move back to Budapest. She married a man she had met in the internment camp, and together they survived the Holocaust in Budapest. They had a son and moved to Vienna, Austria, where Rosa lived until her death in 2005. The rest of her family, including her son, lived in Israel.
In her interview Rosa talked about her wedding in detail. Since both Rosa’s and Michi’s families were in the tailoring business, they bought lace for the wedding dress and the embroidered veil which they made. The civil wedding ceremony took place seven weeks before the Jewish ceremony. Rosa reports that the civil ceremony didn’t mean anything to her, and she did not consider herself married at that point. Prior to the religious wedding ceremony, Rosa went to the mikvah (ritual bath) in accordance with Jewish law. On the morning of the wedding, they went to the photographer’s studio to take photographs. The ceremony was held at the synagogue on Oranienburger Strasse, which Rosa described as “one of the most beautiful temples in all of Berlin, some even say in all of Europe.” Rosa recalled that two married couples were required to lead the bride and groom to the chuppah, her parents and Michi’s sister and brother-in-law since the rest of his family were living in Budapest. Two little girls served as flower girls, and two little boys wearing sailor suits held her train. Rosa remembered that all the way down the aisle the boys were fighting over the train which resulted in her dress being pulled back and forth. Four of Rosa’s friends were in the wedding party, each wearing a dress in a different pastel colour. The ceremony was followed by a meal in a restaurant, although Rosa’s mother prepared some of the dishes. According to Rosa, the band was awful so there wasn’t much dancing until a friend who was an excellent piano player started to play and everyone began dancing.
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Jews in Nazi Germany (Pre-World War II) – The Nazi party came to power in Germany in 1933. After World War I, Germany was faced with military defeat, social unrest and an economic crisis. Many Germans blamed the Jews for these disasters. The difficult situation in Germany and the ever- present anti-Semitic sentiments resulted in a rise in the popularity of the Nazi party, and on January 20, 1933 Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany. Immediately, the Jewish community experienced organised attacks, and anti-Jewish law were passed. Jews were prohibited from working in certain professions, participating in cultural events, purchasing products during certain hours, and even attending school. Jewish businesses were boycotted and looted, and many Jewish people lost their businesses or jobs. The first concentration camp was opened in Dachau, and many Jews were arrested and sent there and to other camps. In 1935 the Nuremberg laws were passed, which stripped German Jews of their citizenship. Jews lost legal protection and were left with all of the obligations but few of the rights of German citizenship. Persecution varied from city to city and peaked in the Kristallnacht pogrom of November 9–10, 1938, in which thousands of Jews throughout Nazi Germany were attacked or arrested and thousands of Jewish-owned shops or businesses were looted and destroyed. Many Jews chose to flee Germany, and, until October 1941, German policy encouraged Jewish emigration. Jews moved to any country that would take them, including other European countries where many were later killed as the Nazis captured new territories, as well as the United States, England, and Israel.
