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Natalia Grauer Rosenwald transcript, 1939-2004, Date acquired: 08/13/2004, bulk 1939-1945

 

Summary

Extent:
1.00 folders
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

[Title of Item], [Date of Item], [Box and Folder number], Natalia Grauer Rosenwald transcript, Special Collections & Archives, Florida State University Libraries, Tallahassee, Florida. http://purl.fcla.edu/fsu/WWII_04_0246.

Background

Scope and content:

Natalia Grauer Rosenwald's oral history outlines her life growing up in Krakow, Poland and her experiences in the Krakow ghetto, Mauthausen, and Ravensbrück. She speaks about hiding, dog attacks, working in the crematorium sorting clothes, stealing food, the Death March, how the SS tried disguising themselves with the advance of the Allies, liberation, reprisal shootings, finding her family after the war, living in Cyprus, Israel, Australia, and Germany before settling in the United States. She concludes her oral history with her experiences talking at schools about the Holocaust, visiting Auschwitz, and her message to the world about the Holocaust.

Biographical / historical:

Natalia Grauer Rosenwald was born in Krakow, Poland in 1929, the oldest of four children. Natalia describes life growing up in the Krakow ghetto and leaving to find food for her and her family. When deportations to Auschwitz began, her parents had her and her sisters run into the forests to hide. They found refuge in an abandoned brick factory and returned to the ghetto when they could not find food. Her mom and her sisters were able to leave the ghetto safely through the help of a priest. Natalia and her father snuck out of the ghetto and hid in a wheat field. They were then able to get on a train to Vaschow. Once there, they were both captured and sent to the Mauthausen concentration camp.

Natalia was then sent to Ravensbrück where she worked in an ammunitions factory and in the crematorium sorting clothes. When she was liberated, a Jewish-American doctor wanted to adopt her and take her back to America, but she wanted to find her parents. She train-hopped back to Vaschow where she stayed with a friend she knew from her childhood. Natalia received a note from her mom saying that they were in Krakow so Natalia got a ride with an American soldier to Krakow where she reunited with her family. Her parents and sisters survived the war. She stayed in a displaced persons camp in Eggenfelden, Germany where she met her future husband Maurice Grauer. After they were married in 1947 they left for Palestine but were detained in Cyprus until Israel became a state in 1948. They left Israel in 1952 and moved to Munich, Germany where they obtained a visa to Australia in 1955. From there, they traveled to New Jersey in 1962 where Natalia's family was living. Her husband Maurice passed away in 2003 and Natalia now lives in Florida.

Acquisition information:

Donated

The oral history was conducted and transcribed by Michael G. Batz in Clearwater, Florida.

Custodial history:

Transferred from the Institute on World War II and the Human Experience to FSU Libraries Special Collections & Archives in July 2022.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

This collection is open to all researchers.

Terms of access:

All requests for permission to quote, publish, broadcast or otherwise reproduce from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Associate Dean for Special Collections & Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Florida State University Libraries as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.

Preferred citation:

[Title of Item], [Date of Item], [Box and Folder number], Natalia Grauer Rosenwald transcript, Special Collections & Archives, Florida State University Libraries, Tallahassee, Florida. http://purl.fcla.edu/fsu/WWII_04_0246.

Location of this collection:
116 Honors Way
Tallahassee
FL
32306-2047
USA