Salamon/Sali Rosner

My father, Salomon/Sali Rosner was born in Russ-Modlovitza, May 24 1903 son of Meir Rosner, an inn-keeper and Fulie Sand. Solomon/Sali started school in Chernowitz where the family has moved. Meir Rosner tragically passed away when a gas reservoir exploded in the summer of 1912. He never saw his youngest son Bibi. My father was then nine years old. With the money collected from the insurance my mother who never worked before, bought a small shop to raise her five children.

During the First World War the Russian occupation brought another tragedy, my mother Fulie was brutally murdered by the Russian soldiers. All the five children ended up in an orphanage which was catering for youngsters up to 14-15 years old. In 1918, my father who was the oldest had to leave the orphanage. He had to cater for his younger siblings but there was no work and he had no resources.

He then remembered that his father Meir told him many years before that one of his uncles was living in Vienna. He thought that his uncle could find some work for him. He sold whatever was left and made his way to Vienne. Alas there was nothing to do and he tried tp make his way back to Bukovina. But with no money left he couldn’t buy a ticket for the trip all the way home. He was asked to leave the train at the Budapest station. There he found himself with his belongings on his back on the train stations stairs not understanding a word of Hungarian, not knowing what to do next and what will happen to his brothers and sister.

And all of s sudden, someone call him in a language he understood. It was Pal (Paal) Illes, a blacksmith from Szentendre. My father told him his story. The blacksmith asked him if he wishes to learn the trade. Of course he was delighted, and was hoping to help his brothers as well. He learns Hungarian; finished the professional school started to work and helped his brothers.

He helped Avrum learn the wood craft, Leizer to become an electrician and Bibi specialize in water installations. In 1928 he married Arunka Taut. After much work he open his own workshop in 1933 but still he didn’t manage to get the Hungarian citizenship. I was born in 1938.

In 1941 as a Jew he was enrolled in the forced labor units. From time to time he was able to call home but come 1944 he was directed toward Austria. En route, he found himself in a camp in the city of Bruck an der Leitha. There, an honest blacksmith (Paul Schalling) let him work and feed him. He was also able to find some medicine for his fellows prisoners. But it was short lived and he was soon transferred to the Mauthausen death camp.
After the camp was liberated or before (some managed to escape but I do not know if this was the case for my father) he started to make his way back to Budapest.
His fried weakened by typhus died in the house of farmer in Gollarn. Two days later my father passed away and was buried in the same farmyard. It was a railway worker who broke the news to my mother and gave her his wallet and a letter from the farmer.
My mother illegally crossed the border into Austria to find the female farmer who wrote the letter. She found out that my father passed away on 15 may 1945. With the help of Bruck an der Leitha, blacksmith my mother brought the two bodies back to Budapest where they were buried. His friend’s name was Bela Fekete.
Even today the hairs of the blacksmith are still looking after the two sepultures. I have very good and regular contacts with them

Rosner Ervin – Budapest February 2009