Róśka Peter

Róśka Broniatowska was born in 1904 in Czestochowa, Poland. As a child, she was sent to I Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im. Juliusza Slowackiego -- the local Catholic Polish high school for girls -- since the accreditation of the Jewish high school was not recognized by the Polish colleges. Róśka, blond and blue eyed, was the nuns‘ favorite as they hoped to convert her. Similarly, the Nazis adored her when she opened the first Leipzig Süsswarenmesse after the war in Spring 1933. Thomas Mann, whom she met through her husband when he stayed at Zurich, called her "a beautiful Slavic woman" in his diaries. In contrast, Róśka was mostly impressed by the speed with which Katia Mann gobbled up the sandwiches offered for the guests. After graduating from highschool in 1922 Róśka first studied at Krakow and then (because she was fascinated by socialism and catholic mysticism) was sent by her father, Haskiel to study in Leipzing, Germany in 1924, where her elder brother Joseph, had married into the local Kaufmann family. Róśka's sister, Mania joined her and together they studied at the Leipzig Handelshochschule. Róśka graduated as Dr.phil.I/Dr.rer.pol in 1931 from Leipzig university, having written a dissertation on tax policy and land reform. They both lived and worked in Leipzig and Berlin until Róśka left for Switzerland in late summer 1933, having met her husband, Dr. Hans Armin Peter , a Swiss man from Solothurn, at university. They lived at Winterthur until 1940, then moved on to Zurich. Róśka lost her first child during pregnancy, and her daughter Ruth Maria died of diabetes. Anna Ruth (Ania), was born in 1943, graduated from Zurich university in 1969 and worked as a highschol teacher until retirement, living at Zurich and Basel. Mania‘s death, in 1954, almost took Róśka with her, but she survived a serious illness and started to work as an accountant and bank clerk. In 1971 her husband died. She lived on to 1990, spending her last months at hospital and an old age home.