Josef Rosenbaum (M / Germany, 1931), Holocaust survivor

Joseph "Joe" Rosenbaum / Josef Rozenbaum (M / Germany, 1931), Holocaust survivor

• One of the Tehran Children.

• KEYWORDS : <Refugees> <Tehran Children> <Israel>

• MEMOIRS : A Train to Palestine (2020), by Randy Grigsby

Biography

Josef Rosenbaum (Rozembaum) was born in Cologne, Germany on March 25, 1931, to Simon and Minna Rosenbaum. The family fled to the Soviet Union. Josef arrived in Israel on February 18, 1943.

Book : A Train to Palestine (2020), by Randy Grigsby

• Randy Grigsby, A Train to Palestine: The Tehran Children, Anders' Army and their Escape from Stalin's Siberia, 1939–1943

"In October 1938, eight-year-old Josef Rosenbaum, his mother, and his younger sister set out from Germany on a cruel odyssey, fleeing into eastern Europe along with thousands of other refugees. Sent to Siberian slave labor camps in the wildernesses, they suffered brutal cold, famine, and disease. When Germany invaded Russia many refugees were forced out of Siberia to primitive tent camps in Uzbekistan, accompanied by the Polish army-in-exile previously imprisoned by the Soviets. Within weeks the commander of the army, General Wladyslaw Anders, received orders to relocate his army to Iran to train to fight alongside the British in North Africa. Instructed to leave without the civilians, Anders instead ordered all evacuees, including Jews, to head southward with his troops. Joe and the refugees were again loaded on trains, accompanied by the Polish soldiers, and sent to the port of Pahlavi on the Caspian Sea. Then, transported by trucks over treacherous mountain roads, they finally arrived in Tehran, where they struggled to survive in horrifying conditions. In October 1942, the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem accepted responsibility for the nine hundred orphaned Jewish children in the camp, and by January 1943, the agency secured travel certificates for the Tehran Children to evacuate to Palestine. Joe and the other children, after five terrible years, finally reached safety at the Athlit Detention Camp, north of Haifa, on 18 February 1943. Readers will find the story is one of the swift brutalities of war, and the suffering of civilians swept up in the maelstrom of fierce conflict. A Train to Palestine recreates a remarkable, and little-known story of escape and survival during the Second World War."--Publisher description.

Shreveport Times (Apr 22, 2016)

• "Holocaust Remembrance Day: The Tehran children, by Tom Arceneaux (Shreveport Times, Apr 22, 2016)

Joe Rosenbaum was one of the Tehran Children.

I had never heard of the Tehran Children until Shreveporter Randy Grigsby told me about Joe. You’ll be able to hear Joe’s amazing story in a week. He is the guest speaker for the 33rd annual Holocaust Remembrance Service of Northwest Louisiana at 3 p.m. at St. Mary of the Pines Catholic Church May 1.

When Germany invaded Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, hundreds of thousands of the country’s Jewsfled to Soviet Russia. Any feeling of safety was short lived. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, the Soviet Union moved them further into the country.

Also in 1941, British and Soviet troops jointly occupied Iran. Efforts of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, as the area now comprising the nation of Israel was known prior to May 1948, paved the way for Polish refugees, both Christian and Jewish, to resettle in Palestine from Iran. That is how a group of Jewish children came to be known as the “Tehran Children.” Rosenbaum was one of them.

Of course, the story of any group is an amalgamation of the stories of each member of the group, and Joe’s story varies some from the “typical” story of the Tehran Children. For a start, Joe is German not Polish.

He was born in Cologne, Germany on March 25, 1931, to Simon and Minna Rosenbaum. As the climate for Jews in Germany deteriorated after Hitler rose to power, Simon began making arrangements to immigrate to the United States. He hoped to move the entire family but his contacts in the U.S. could only make arrangements for Simon at that time. Simon planned to save enough to demonstrate that he could support his wife and three children so they could come to live with him in the U.S. Simon left for America in April 1938. Events in Europe moved too quickly for him to execute his plan.

Joe was the middle child. The family managed to get daughter Ines, the oldest (born in 1926), to Belgium, from where she ultimately escaped to America. Minna, Joe, and his younger sister Nelly, born in 1936, stayed behind in Germany.

In the spring of 1939, Germany sought to relocate thousands of German Jews to Poland. The Polish government initially refused them entry, but eventually accepted them. When Germany invaded Poland, the refugees fled to the part of Poland occupied by Russia but they did not receive a warm welcome there either.

The Russians relocated 400,000 refugees, including the remaining Rosenbaums, to Siberia in early 1940. They used freight cars on trains, then trucks, to move them like cattle. The refugees performed manual labor in an undeveloped area of the huge region. So isolated were they that there was no need for guards. Where would they go if they escaped?

While in Siberia, Minna became weaker and weaker. She was giving Joe and Nelly part of her meager food ration. She literally starved herself to save her children.

Joe, his sister, and some members of his extended family eventually found themselves on a collective farm in Turkestan. Food again was scarce. One morning, Joe’s sister complained of being hungry when she woke up. Joe comforted her by telling her that he would bring her food later in the day. When he finally did, it was too late. She was dead.

In time, Joe made his way to Iran, where he stayed and attended some school. From there, Jewish agencies assisted in bringing him and others on a roundabout journey to Palestine, then part of the British Mandate in the Middle East. He arrived on Feb. 18, 1943.

Hadassah and the Youth Aliyah, two Jewish organizations, helped him recuperate from his weakness and malnutrition after he arrived in Palestine, and he began to work on a kibbutz. He loved the family who took him in.

Joe’s father began to write to him, urging Joe to join him in America. Joe did not want to leave his adopted family, but eventually he joined his father in New York in 1946.

Joe Rosenbaum’s story illustrates vividly the ravages and tragedies of dislocation due to war and genocide. It has deep lessons for all of us. Let us learn well.