Document Type
Oral History
Publication Date
3-28-1995
Abstract
Copyright Steve Hochstadt. This transcript is provided for individual research purposes only; for all other uses, including publication, reproduction and quotation beyond fair use, permission must be obtained in writing from: Steve Hochstadt, c/o The Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library, Bates College, 70 Campus Avenue, Lewiston, Maine 04240-6018.
Recommended Citation
Hochstadt, Steve, "Rosenthal, Hans oral history interview" (1995). Shanghai Jewish Oral History Collection. 62.
https://scarab.bates.edu/shanghai_oh/62
COinS
Scope and Content Note
Professor Dr. Hans Alfred Rosenthal was born in Berlin in 1924, son of a book seller, Alfred Rosenthal. In 1935 he had to leave his school and attend the Jewish Mittelschule in the Grosse Hamburger Strasse. His uncle was arrested in November 1938 and sent to Sachsenhausen. From October 1939 to April 1940 Rosenthal went to Hachsharah in the Niederlausitz. Later he was a slave laborer in a munitions factory. During the so-called Fabrikaktion in February 1943, he was incarcerated in the Rosenstrasse and released after the famous demonstration there by Christian women. Rosenthal survived the war with relatives of his Christian mother. After the war Rosenthal attended the Berlin University, and later became director of the Institute for Virology of the Humboldt University.
Rosenthal's father went to Shanghai in April 1939 on the "MS Viktoria." There he contracted tuberculosis and stayed in the hospital for 6 years. He returned to Germany with the first transport of refugees in August 1947.