Leif Rosenstock (M / Denmark, 1926), Holocaust survivor
Leif Rosenstock (M / Denmark, 1926), Holocaust survivor
Eva Rosenstock (F / Denmark, 1928), Holocaust survivor
John Rosenstock (M / Denmark, 1941), Holocaust survivor
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Biography
Leif Herman Rosenstock was born in 1926 in Denmark, to Noah Rosenstock and Frida Frajdla Eisen. The family escaped by fishing boat to Sweden during the Nazi round-up of the Jews in October 1943.
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Leif Herman Rosenstock was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1926. His father, Noah Rosenstock, was a locksmith and his mother, Frida Frajdla Eisen Rosenstock, took care of the children. Leif Rosenstock had two younger siblings: Eva Lillian, born in 1928 and John Moritz, born in 1941. The Rosenstock family included Leif’s paternal grandparents: Isak Rosenstock, born in Lund, Sweden in 1880; his wife, Fanny Polack Rosenstock, who died in 1939. Noah Rosenstock, donor’s father, had six siblings: Esther, Harry Leo, Robert Salomon, Willy, Ruth and Henny. Leif’s maternal side of the family included his grandparents: Jakub and Anna Chana Eisen and his maternal aunts and uncles: Marie Malka, Rachel, Kaja, Herman, Gershon, Max and Ohne. In 1943 Leif, seventeen-years-old at that time, worked as clerical apprentice in the offices of a factory in Copenhagen. In late September 1943, a head clerk in Leif’s office informed him of the planned deportation of Danish Jews. Leif immediately informed his parents but the family had no prepared hiding place and they remained in their apartment on Enghavevej Street in Copenhagen. On the night of October 1-2, 1943, the German police began arresting Jews, but they did not force the doors of locked apartments. The house janitor, Hansen, told the Germans that the Rosenstock family escaped prior to the “aktion”. Noah Rosenstock, donor’s father, heard the knocking but he did not open the door. The next morning Leif and his father traveled by bikes while his mother and two younger children took a taxicab, to Måløv, a small town, some 15 miles from Copenhagen. Skovgaard Jensen, a Dane active in the underground and Noah’s work friend, hid them in the attic of his house for a few days. Jørgen Andersen, college student and resistance activist, hid the Rosenstock family for another week at a different location. On October 11th, 1943 the family returned to Copenhagen, but after one night they were taken by taxicabs to a small boathouse in Kastrup, Denmark. At night of October 11th they were taken to a fishing boat, where the men were placed under the deck and women and small children stayed in a cabin. After an hour and a half the boat arrived safely in Limhamm, Sweden. The Rosenstock family were placed in a refugee center organized by the Swedish government. All of Leif’s relatives escaped Denmark and survived the war.