My mother and father met in Berlin in 1941 and got married there on November 13^th 1941. I was born on August 17^th 1942 in Berlin.

But our family life did not go on for long. My father was deported to Auschwitz were he was murdered in March 1943 and my mother and I were sent to Theresienstadt where my mother died in May 1944.

I, thanks to unknown heroes, survived and was brought to England after the war and later adopted. 

As long as I remember I wanted to know about my lost biological family.

My first success (mixed with the sadness I found out about this after her death) was finding that I had a maternal aunt named Selma who had survived and lived in Germany where she died in the 1980’s.

But till this year, 2005, I had no Rosenthal relatives. Then my unknown first cousin in Haifa found me after checking his uncle’s name in Yad Vashem’s database. From the Page of Testimony he realized that his uncle whom he had last seen in March 1941 in Berlin before his family escaped to South America, had later become the father of a daughter and that this daughter had survived the Holocaust. That was of course me.

We have now met, and it is wonderful to have relatives. Through my Israeli cousin I have also found my Australian relatives whom I will meet later this year. It is a real miracle. 

My Israeli cousin has told me many stories about my father, but I hope you will help me locate the relevant information
 

My father Siegfried Rosenthal volunteered for the German Army in 1915 and served in Regiment No. 46 in the 5th Army Corps.

Fairly early in the war, he was taken POW by the Russians.

The day the other German POWs were returned to Germany after World War One, my father had typhus and could not travel. As a result of this he stayed in the USSR till he was finally returned to Germany in 1938.

Where will I be able to locate my father’s military file in Germany? Where would any information about possible negotiations for his release from the USSR to Germany be kept?

During the years my father lived in the USSR, he married and had children and lived on a Kolchoz. His wife probably died. But what happened to his children when he went back to Germany? Will I be able to locate these children – my halfsister/s and/or halfbrother/s? How many were they? When were they born? What were they called? Are any of them still alive?

Perhaps the following names will turn up in somebody’s family tree and help me learn about my more distant relatives.

PATERNAL GRANDFATHER: Isidor Isaac Rosenthal 

                                                      born  Sept 20^th 1869 in Mezhirichi                                                                                           

                                                      Died Feb 7^th 1925 Berlin

PATERNAL GRANDMOTHER: Minna Rosenthal nee  Stensch

                                                       born  Nov 24^th  1864 in Mezhirichi  ( 1865?)

                                                       died June 21^st 1935 Berlin

PATERNAL UNCLE: Kurt Rosenthal born April 3^rd 1899 in Mezhirichi

                                                        Escaped to Australia

PATERNAL AUNT:                     Paula Bochner nee Rosenthal

                                                       born August  1st 1900 Mezhirichi

                                                       Married to Leo Leibl Leon Bochner

                                                       Escaped to South America.