Holocaust survivor, Morris Rosen, addresses High School for Yom HaShoah

Mr. Morris Rosen – a Beth Tfiloh congregant - spoke to our High School at a Yom HaShoah assembly about his personal experiences during the Holocaust. He survived various concentration camps but lost his parents and five siblings in the Shoah.

Mr. Rosen organized an exhibit in the Miller Art Gallery of the Mintzes Theater of original photos and artifacts from his pre- and post-war experiences. Some of the photos were taken during the war, which he collected from various sources. The artifacts document the transports, concentration camps, mass murders, unmarked graves, and post-war memorializations throughout Europe. There is also a set of U.S. anti-Semitic wartime propaganda that our students might find especially interesting. A Bio of Mr. Rosen from the USHMM is reprinted below.

Morris Rosen (Moniek Rozen)

Born November 10, 1922, Czestochowa, Poland

One of 10 children, Moniek grew up in Dabrowa Gornicza, an industrial town in western Poland. His father, Jacob, owned a general store, which he was forced to close in 1938 as the result of a boycott by local antisemites. Moniek attended both public and Jewish schools, and his father hoped that one day he would become a rabbi.

1933–39: On September 1, 1939, Moniek was awakened by the sounds of airplanes flying overhead as German forces invaded Poland. As the war drew closer, Moniek fled eastward, but was caught near the Vistula River by advancing German troops. Returning to Dabrowa, he learned that the Nazis had killed some of the town's Jews, and had begun imposing severe restrictions on the community. Jews had to turn over radios, money, and furs, and were subject to forced labor. Moniek worked for the German construction office as a carpenter and bricklayer.

1940–45: On August 12, 1942, German officials ordered Dabrowa's Jews to assemble in the town. Several thousand Jews, including Moniek's parents, were selected for deportation. A few days later, they were transported to the Auschwitz killing center. Moniek was later deported to a series of concentration camps. In February 1945, as the Soviet army approached, the SS evacuated the Kittlitztreben camp. The prisoners, including Moniek, were sent on a death march to the Buchenwald concentration camp, walking more than eight hours a day in the bitter cold. Moniek survived another death march and was liberated from the Theresienstadt ghetto by Soviet troops. He reunited with members of his family. His parents and five of his siblings perished in the Holocaust.

In 1949, after spending several years in displaced persons camps in Austria and Germany, Moniek immigrated to the United States