This is a photograph taken in approximately 1929–1930 of Rosa Rosenstein at a Purim celebration with friends in Berlin, Germany. The photograph shows seven young people in their early twenties dressed in evening dress or fancy dress costumes as is customary for Purim parties. Rosa is pictured second from the right. The men are wearing tuxedos, and one man is wearing a top hat and carrying an umbrella and has an iron cross (German military decoration) pinned to his lapel. The women are wearing party clothes, and some are also wearing scarves and hats. Some of the people are smoking cigarettes. In her oral history, Rosenstein reports that she had “a great circle of friends” and that they liked to go to parties together.
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.
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Purim - Purim is celebrated on the 14 Adar as the day the Jewish people were saved from destruction during the fourth century BCE. The heroine of the Purim story, Queen Esther, worked together with her uncle, Mordechai, to reverse the decree of genocide issued against the Jewish people by Haman, the vizier of Persia. It is the tradition on Purim to dress up in costumes, distribute small food packages known as mishloach manot, give charity, and listen to the reading of the Megilla – the Book of Esther.
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.
