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Transcript

Rosa Marie Burger

by:Terreysia Williams

After the war

Before the war

Rosa said,"In some ways life in America was much easier. I was amazed the first time I saw a big store, fully stocked with aluminum pots and pans and all kinds of other merchandise. In other ways, though, it was difficult. I found it hard to fit in. I missed my mother, and I missed the village I had known all my life. Life in America was very different."

Rosa left Germany in 1948. She had married an American soldier who was stationed in Germany, and when he was transferred back to the United States, she went with him. We settled first in Battle Creek, Michigan, and then moved as he was transferred to other posts.

She was 17 years old when she started studying at a trade school in Wurzburz,a university town 25 miles away.

During the war

Finding light in the Darkness

During the war it was a very dangerous time. Everyone—including Christians—was very afraid of the Nazis and dissension of any kind was severely punished with harsh prison terms or death.

Begening of the war

During the war

Rosa found light in the darkness with the american soliders who made them feel safe and her friends in the village

At one point they heard that the americans were leaving, and the russians would occupieing them instead. Rosa heard how the russians treated Gearmans

Rosa then got a job with the government doing clerical work in Ochsenfurt, the county seat. In the mornings she worked for the school board, and in the evening she worked for a lawyer who was the administrative head of police departments throughout the county.

Jews were restricted from working and received fewer ration stamps than other people. Soon they did not have enough food to eat. Things grew worse and worse.

Rosa mother had retained her English citizenship. Jewish people from the village approached her, asking her to teach them English in case they would have the opportunity to emigrate.

During the war

Ms.Burger says,"I remember clearly walking up to a tank. The hatch at the top of the tank opened and a soldier emerged, with his gun pointed directly at me. I asked him if he wanted anything. He didn’t seem to understand. I explained again that the farmer’s wife wondered if they needed anything. After talking to the other soldier in the tank, he said they would like fresh eggs."

Not long after the Americans came, a lieutenant came looking for her. He knew her name. Someone told him that she spoke English. The lieutenant said he had a job for her

During the night we took refuge along with 20 or 25 other people in the cellar of a neighboring farmer. In the morning, the farmer knocked on the cellar door and told us the Americans were arriving.

The Beginning

Rosa Marie Burger was born and raised in Gaukonigshofen

During the war

After the war

Rosa remembers the Nazis coming in trucks to her village from other towns. They stormed the homes of the Jewish people in the night, using their axes to chop through the doors and break the windows. They took or destroyed all the lovely things in these homes

Rosa says,"The Americans were not what we had expected, and I’m sure we were not what they had expected either. The Americans were informal and direct. They didn’t show respect for the people they dealt with. We, on the other hand, were used to a more formal, structured society. It all changed after the war. Hitler and his war—it was his fault. Germany changed, and the traditional way of life in the small villages was lost forever.

During the war

Much later, the rest of the Jews were rounded up, the women and children. It was on a Saturday morning—the Jewish Sabbath, a day when their religion prohibits them from work or travel. They were told to bring their clothes in bundles and report to the train station.

Resouces

http://www.ushmm.org/remember/the-holocaust-survivors-and-victims-resource-center/benjamin-and-vladka-meed-registry-of-holocaust-survivors/behind-every-name-a-story/rosa-marie-burger

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