Isaak Rosenberg: A Family With No Survivors

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The youngest child of Rebecca Blumenfeld and Mendel Rosenberg was their son Isaak. As we saw, Isaak was born in Rosenthal, Germany, on June 15, 1892, and on December 22, 1922, he married Bella Gans, daughter of Jacob Gans and Esther Ehrenreich, in Niederaula, Germany.

Isaak and Bella had one child, a daughter Rita Rosenberg, born on April 29, 1924 in Frankfurt.

Unfortunately, all of them—Isaak, Bella, and Rita—were murdered by the Nazis. According to Yad Vashem, Isaak was deported from Frankfurt on August 10, 1942, and sent to the concentration camp in Majdanek, Poland, where he was murdered. His wife Bella’s nephew Israel Gans filed this Page of Testimony at Yad Vashem in his memory. The Hebrew written where it says “circumstances of death” merely says “perished in the Holocaust.” (Thank you to Hanna Gafni of Tracing the Tribe on Facebook for translating this line on this Page and the two below.)

The information available regarding the fates of Bella and Rita is far less specific. The Gedenbuch (Memorial Book) only reports that Bella was deported to Poland and killed there; perhaps she was deported on the same date as Isaak and to the same camp, but that isn’t stated. Nor does the Page of Testimony filed at Yad Vashem by Bella’s nephew Israel Gans provide any further details. The line for “Circumstances of Death” translates as “deported to Poland. Her fate is not known. Perished in the Holocaust.”

The information about Rita is even more limited. The Gedenbuch doesn’t even have information about where she was deported to or killed nor does her cousin Israel Gans’ Page of Testimony for her. The Hebrew written where it says “circumstances of death” says “perished in the Holocaust.”


This may be the first time that I have learned of family members who were killed in the Holocaust for whom there are no recorded details of their fates. Did Bella and Rita accompany Isaak to Majdanek? Or was the family separated? The lack of information somehow makes their deaths sting even more. The fact that the Nazis didn’t even document their murders makes it more likely that those deaths would have been somehow swept under the rug. So it is my task here to make sure that their lives and their murders are not forgotten.

That brings me to the end of the story of Rebecca Blumenfeld Rosenberg, the seventh child of Isaak Blumenfeld I and Gelle Strauss. Although Rebecca lost one son, Willi, as a young adult, and her son Isaak and his family were all murdered in the Holocaust, she was survived by seven grandchildren and has descendants still living today in Israel and the United States.

Next I turn to Rebecca’s younger sister, Friederike Blumenfeld, the eighth child of Isaak Blumenfeld I and Gelle Strauss and the last of their children to live to adulthood.

25 thoughts on “Isaak Rosenberg: A Family With No Survivors”

    • Not at all, in my experience. The Nazis were fastidious about keeping records of all the people they murdered. Early on that might have been less the case when they just lined up people in pits and shot them to death. But by the time they were sending people from Germany to the camps (not generally until 1942 or so), they recorded the transports and deaths. So at least in my experience researching my relatives, this is quite unusual.

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  3. I almost did not read your post due to the tittle. Most of the time I can read these types of post learn from them and remind myself I have had a easy life. Other days like today I have to discipline myself and read what I do not want to know, but know that I should. My father liberated one of these camps and I have found evidence that there could be another also. He told me about then only once when I was about 13 years old. What he told me was awful and I am sure he left a lot out. Your family research is of great value not only to your family but those of us that learn so much from your work.

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    • I appreciate your feelings. I know how hard it is for me to research and write about this. And I am sure your father was scarred by seeing those camps. Just a nightmare.

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  6. Pingback: Friday’s Family History Finds | Empty Branches on the Family Tree

  10. Hi Amy,

    Just to say that the Majdanek State Museum does have a record for Isaak

    https://www.majdanek.eu/en/prisoners-results?firstname=Isaak&lastname=Rosenberg&day=&month=&year=&place-of-birth=&prisoners-search-submit=SEARCH

    Sadly nothing for Rita and Bella.

    If you want to follow up with the museum I recommend you contact:

    Łukasz Myszala

    Informacja Archiwalna i Pracownia Naukowa
    Państwowe Muzeum na Majdanku

    Archival Information & Research Laboratory
    State Museum at Majdanek

    tel. + 48 81 710 28 60, e-mail: l.myszala@majdanek.eu

    His English is excellent.

    Regards

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