Rolf and his brother Alfred Joseph, both who survived World War II concealment and persecution, photograph taken by Wolfgang Haas
Born
(1920-12-11)December 11, 1920
Germany
Died
November 28, 2012(2012-11-28) (aged 91)
Germany
Years active
Carpenter, manager at the German wagon and machine factory
Known for
Surviving Jewish persecution, concealment, and torture from Gestapo during World War II
Rolf Joseph (December 11, 1920 – November 28, 2012) was a witness and person persecuted by the Nazi regime. He grew up with his brother in Berlin, having a typical childhood of school and soccer-playing until the persecution of the Jews began in the 1930s. His first initiation was when a schoolteacher began wearing a Sturmabteilung (SA) uniform and began beating Jewish schoolchildren. Rolf left school at the age of 14 and began to work as a carpenter's apprentice. When forced labor was inflicted on Jewish men, he worked at IG Farben. He was also forced to make equipment and uniforms for the Wehrmacht (Nazi armed forces). On November 10, 1938, he saw and was afraid by the devastation of Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) to Jewish businesses and synagogues.
After his parents were taken from their home to concentration camps, Rolf and his brother Alfred went into hiding, only possessing what they could carry. After some months, they were taken in by Marie Burde, who fed them and sheltered them in her apartment. She had few possessions, but she fed them and a friend Arthur Fordanski from her rationed food and what discarded vegetables that she picked up from the weekly markets. They kept warm from the many newspapers that were stacked up in her apartment.
Rolf was subject to severe beatings from the Gestapo that left him with lifelong epileptic seizures. He escaped during a train ride to Auschwitz concentration camp and later by jumping out of a hospital building. After Berlin was bombed in 1943, Burde and the three young men went to live on a plot of land that she owned outside of Berlin. They build a crude shelter and then lived there until Burde was assigned a room. Rolf stayed hidden until the Red Army entered the city in 1945. His brother Alfred had been captured and was held in a concentration camp until the end of the war. Burde and Fordanski survived the war. His large family did not, except for the wife of one of Rolf's cousins.
After the war, Rolf met with schoolchildren to tell them his war-time story. He received the Federal Cross of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz) in 2002 for his commitment.
RolfJoseph (December 11, 1920 – November 28, 2012) was a witness and person persecuted by the Nazi regime. He grew up with his brother in Berlin, having...
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that she owned there. Burde and three men — two brothers Alfred and RolfJoseph and Arthur Fordanski — survived the war, but Alfred was in a concentration...
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22, Edwards flagged down two Milwaukee police officers, Robert Rauth and Rolf Mueller, at the corner of North 25th Street. The officers noted Edwards had...
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Press. p. 352. Rolfs 1995, p. 27. Rolfs 1995, p. 28. Rolfs 1995, p. 29. Rolfs 1995, p. 31. Rolfs 1995, p. 34. Rolfs 1995, p. 35. Rolfs 1995, p. 39. Jones...
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classified it as Leucocoprinus luteus in 1945 and the German mycologist Rolf Singer reclassified it as Leucocoprinus birnbaumii in 1962. In the UK, Leucocoprinus...
Weber Stages of a Long Journey ECM 1921 2005 Enrico Rava Tati ECM 1922 2006 Rolf Lislevand Nuove Musiche ECM New Series ECM 1923 2005 Andrey Dergatchev The...
the island on multi-day trips from South Africa or Namibia. Graphic artist Rolf Weijburg produced an etch of Edinburgh of the Seven Seas and other places...
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