Fritz Alexander Rosenberg

Fritz was one of three sons born to a Jewish family in the university city of Goettingen, where the Rosenbergs had lived since the 1600s. His father owned a linen factory. Fritz worked as a salesman there, and later he and his brothers inherited the business. In 1913 Fritz married Else Herz. By the early 1920s they had two sons and a daughter.

1933-39: In 1933 the Nazis came to power in Germany. A year later the Rosenbergs' factory was seized and three Nazis came to the family's home. An officer set a gun on the table and informed Fritz that if they didn't leave in a week they and their furniture would be thrown out the window. Within a month the family moved to Hamburg. Supported by Fritz's uncle, the family remained in Hamburg until the war broke out in autumn 1939.

1940-43: In November 1941 Fritz and his family were deported to the Minsk ghetto in the USSR along with 1,000 other Jews from Hamburg. Herded by SS guards to a red brick building on arrival, the family saw bodies scattered over the ground. Before the Hamburg transport could be lodged, corpses had to be dragged from the building, and blood scrubbed from the walls. Half-eaten food was still on the tables. The prisoners there said that thousands of Soviet Jews had been killed to make room for the new transports.

The Minsk ghetto was liquidated in October 1943. Fritz was not heard from again. His son Heinz was deported in September and was the only one in his family to survive the war.