Heinz Rosenberg

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Heinz Ludwig Rosenberg , later Henry Robertson (born September 15, 1921 in Göttingen , † August 13, 1997 in New York ) was a German merchant and survivor of the Holocaust .

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Heinz Rosenberg's ancestors were regarded as respected Jewish citizens in Göttingen . The father Fritz (1881–1943) ran the linen weaving mill S. & A. Rosenberg together with his brothers . Immediately after the seizure of power , the Göttingen Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the administration and the NSDAP began to force the Rosenberg family out of the company and severely threatened Fritz Rosenberg in early May 1933. In early 1936 the Rosenbergs had lost all shares in the company.

Due to the attacks, Fritz Rosenberg went to Hamburg , where his wife Else, née Herz, was from. The family found an apartment at Hansastraße 40. Heinz Rosenberg attended a secondary school in Eimsbüttel until 1937 . Because of his Jewish beliefs, he had to leave school without a qualification in favor of German students. He completed vocational training at the export and import company Arndt & Co. The parents tried to leave the German Reich with the entire family , but failed.

After completing his training, Heinz Rosenberg had to work in a labor camp for Jews near Buxtehude from 1939 . Here, under the control of the Gestapo and the SS , he laid drains. Half a year later he returned to Hamburg with severe health problems. In order to be able to contribute to the family's livelihood, he worked as a warehouse clerk at the Vitaborn juice factory .

On November 7, 1941, the National Socialists ordered the deportation of the Rosenberg family. One day later, Heinz Rosenberg and his originally Romanian girlfriend Erika Hirschhorn had to leave Hamburg. They were accompanied by their parents and Heinz Rosenberg's sister Irmgard. Only his brother Curt was able to flee to England after being arrested during the night of the pogrom and later imprisonment in a concentration camp . In the Minsk ghetto , the Rosenberg family lived in a special district and had to do forced labor in special detachments. Heinz Rosenberg married his girlfriend here in September 1942.

Together with other able-bodied men, Rosenberg had to leave the ghetto in 1943 to do forced labor. His parents, sister and wife died when the ghetto was dissolved. Heinz Rosenberg spent the time up to the end of the war in a total of twelve concentration camps. At the end of the war he was severely malnourished and fell ill with typhus in April 1945 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp . After the liberation of the camp, he reached Sweden by ambulance , where he began to write down his memories of his experiences. He later emigrated to the USA , where he wrote a new, English-language version in 1983, which he self-published. In 1985 Steidl Verlag published the German translation with the title “Years of Terror ... and I was left to tell you”.

In the former synagogue of the Rosenberg family in Göttingen, vigils and memorial hours are held in honor of the family today. Heinz Rosenberg's curriculum vitae is briefly described on an “Identification Card” that serves as the entrance ticket to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum .

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personal data
SURNAME Rosenberg, Heinz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rosenberg, Heinz Ludwig; Robertson, Henry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German merchant and survivor of the Holocaust
DATE OF BIRTH September 15, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Goettingen
DATE OF DEATH August 13, 1997
Place of death new York