Rosel Siev

Jewish Telegraph 29 March 2019

SURVIVOR WHO LOST 63 FAMILY MEMBERS

A MANCHESTER woman who lost 63 family members in the Holocaust died on Monday at the age of 97.

German-born Rosel Siev’s mother and two brothers were murdered at Auschwitz.

She only revealed what had happened to her and her family in later years during a radio interview in Ireland, where she had moved in the early 1970s after marrying second husband Asher Siev.

Mrs Siev was raised in the town of Aurich, the eldest of five children born to Karoline and Martin Wolff.

After the horror of Kristallnacht in 1938, she was sent to Britain, living first in Cardiff and then in Manchester.

The Second World War soon broke out and, unable to return to Germany, she trained as a nurse.

Her father had died of pneumonia before the war.

The only contact with her family was a Red Cross letter from her mother, which read: “We are on our way. Don’t forget us.”

Mrs Siev’s mother was en route to a ghetto in Weimar, near the Polish border, before being deported to Auschwitz.

One of Mrs Siev’s sisters, Hannelore, survived a number of concentration camps, including Auschwitz.

She and another prisoner, Bernhard Hillman, were sent to Plaszow concentration camp, where they both managed to get on to the famous Schindler’s List.

Along with many others, Oskar Schindler bribed Nazi officials to send them to the relative safety of his camp at Brunnlitz, where they spent the rest of the war.

Hannelore changed her name to Laura and moved to America, where she still lives.

She also wrote a book about her experiences, I Will Plant You a Lilac Tree — A Memoir of a Schindler’s List Survivor.

Mrs Siev’s other sister, Hilda, was on board The Patria, a ship carrying hundreds of Jewish refugees to then-Palestine.

For nine months it remained off the coast, the British authorities preventing it from entering harbour.

The refugees were due to be deported to Mauritius but, in order to destabilise the ship, Zionist freedom fighters planted a bomb on board.

They miscalculated its effects, however, and the ship sank with the loss of more than 250 lives.

Hilda managed to survive and swam across Haifa harbour, where she was helped to safety, reputedly by Max Frenkel, whom she later married.

She stayed — and died — in what later became Israel.

After the war, Mrs Siev married Arthur Goldstein at Higher Crumpsall Hebrew Congregation.

By now a nurse at North Manchester General Hospital, Mrs Siev was privately nursing Rose Goldstein, who introduced her to her son, Arthur.

They married and had two children, Carolyn and Sharon and settled in Crumpsall.

Mr Goldstein died in 1969 and, in the early 1970s, Mrs Siev married Mr Siev and they moved to his native Dublin.

She became stepmother to his children.

Daughter Carolyn said: “Mum never talked about what happened to her. We knew a little bit more when our father brought our aunts to Manchester.

“It wasn’t until mum was living in Dublin that we discovered a lot more.

“She was asked to go on a radio station to tell her story. We heard things we had not heard before, so it was quite emotional.

“I think she had wanted to protect us, so she didn’t want to tell us what happened.

“Mum later spoke at a few Holocaust Memorial Days in Dublin, but she felt a huge amount of guilt that she didn’t go through any of the camps.”

Mrs Siev and her husband moved to Manchester seven years ago and lived in Singleton Road, Salford. Mr Siev died five years ago.

Carolyn added: “Mum was a beautiful, inspirational woman who was quite spiritual and religious.

“She set a wonderful example to everybody, and I know a lot of people will agree with that.

“When she lived in Manchester in the 1960s, she was on a ladies’ committee which raised thousands of pounds for the Manchester Jewish Blind Society.”

Mrs Siev’s funeral was at Failsworth Cemetery, with family friend Rabbi Shlomo Ellituv officiating.

Children Carolyn Field and Sharon Peppi, Raiselle Gaffin, Sarah Taylor, Donald Siev and Lydia White, sister Laura Hillman, 15 grandchildren and 35 great - grandchildren survive her.