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This family was strongly affected by the horrors of the Second World War.
Hermann Rosen (°15/05/1908, Cologne) moved in the 1920s from Poland to Belgium with his parents and brothers. From 1926 he worked for the company Usines Division Transport-Approvisionnement in Hainaut. Hermann married Sura Hochglober (°29/11/1906, Warsaw) on 21 August 1929. After the marriage the couple moved to the HH Geeststraat in Brussels. There their two eldest children were born: Eva (°02/11/1930, Brussels) and Jacqueline (°06/02/1942, Brussels). Jacqueline unfortunately died a few months after her birth. In 1933 the young family moved to Saint-Gilles and took up residence in Rue Andenne. Mireile (°25/03/1935, Brussels) was born at this address. From 1936 onwards, Hermann was able to work for his father-in-law’s company as a leather worker until the company was declared bankrupt in 1939.
In May 1940 Nazi Germany invaded Belgium and installed a series of anti-Jewish measures. Some of these measures included compulsory registration in the Register of Jews at the end of 1940 and membership of the Jewish Association from the spring of 1942. At the time of the latter registration the family lived in Saint-Gilles in rue Fernand Bernier. At this address their son Jacques (°06/02/1942, Brussels) was born. Shortly afterwards they moved to Charleroi and lived at rue Roton. In Charleroi they welcomed their last child: Régine (°09/06/1943, Charleroi).
Hermann, Sura, Jacques and Régine were arrested in circumstances unknown to us and interned in the Dossin Barracks on 15th April 1944. At that time Jacques is barely 2 years old and Régine only 10 months. Hermann, Sura and their two youngest children were deported on 19 May with transport XXV to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Mother Sura was sent directly to the gas chamber together with her children, Hermann was selected for forced labour and had the number 2751 tattooed on his left arm. Hermann survived the concentration camp and after the war returned to Belgium where he went to live in Sint-Gillis. His eldest daughters Eva and Mireille also survived the war.
