Else Rosenfeld | |
|---|---|
 Else Behrend-Rosenfeld | |
| Born | 1891 |
| Died | 1970 (aged 78–79) |
| Alma mater | University of Jena |
| Children | 3 |
Else Behrend-Rosenfeld (1891–1970) was a GermanHolocaust survivor, known for her published diary and letters,Living in Two Worlds.[1][2]
Rosenfeld was born in 1891 to aJewish father and a non-Jewish mother.[3][2] She grew up in Berlin. Rosenfeld was part of generation of women allowed to study, receiving herdoctorate from theUniversity of Jena in 1919.[3] Rosenfeld worked as a teacher and social worker.[2] Rosenfeld married Dr. Siegfried Rosenfeld a year after receiving her doctorate, who was Jewish. Rosenfeld would later have three children with her husband.[3][2] Her husband worked as aSocial Democratic Party of Germany member of the Prussian state parliament and ministerial official in the Prussian Ministry of Justice from 1920 to 1932.[3][4] Being removed and moving toBavaria after theNazis took power. The family was inIsar Valley from 1934 to 1937.[3] After the events ofKristallnacht, the family moved toMunich.[4]
After pressure by the Nazis toemigrate, Siegfried Rosenfeld and two of their children went toEngland, with their eldest daughter emigrating toArgentina.[3][2][4] Accounts disagree on whether Else escapeddeportation, or if she failed to emigrate.[4][3] Rosenfeld became a welfare worker in Munich's Jewish Community, and worked with theQuakers,Gertrud Luckner, and Annemarie Cohen to organize parcel campaigns to Jewish people deported to Piaski. In June 1941, Rosenfeld was sent to the work camp, Flachsröste Lohhof. Before being appointed economic manager of the internment camp, Heimanlage für Juden Berg am Laim a month later. Rosenfeld escaped a year later to Berlin, then toFreiburg.[3] On April 20 1944, Rosenfeld escaped across the Switzerland-German border in the night with nothing but a backpack.[3][1][4]
In 1945, Rosenfeld published her diaryVerfemt und verfolgt (Outlawed and Persecuted), which details the reactions of people to the Jewish Star to the people of Munich, and names perpetrators and acts of the Holocaust. The book also describes the support and help given to the Jewish community and other persecuted people.[3]
In 1963, theBritish Broadcasting Company conducted an interview with Rosenfeld as a series of 23 broadcasts calledAn Old Lady Remembers.[4]
