Felix Rosenthal papers

Felix Rosenthal (1917-2009) was born on January 12, 1917 in Munich, Germany to Erwin (Irvin, 1889-1981) and Margherita (née Olschki, 1892-1979) Rosenthal. He had four siblings: Albrecht “Albie” (1914-2004), Nicholetta “Niki” (later Misch, 1915-1988), Gabriella (later Ben-Chorin, 1913-1975), and Bernard “Barney” (1920-2017). Following the Nazi rise to power in 1933, Felix moved to Italy and settled in Florence where his mother's family was from. Felix continued schooling and studied engineering at the Istituto Politecnico in Milan until his studies were interrupted by antisemitic laws in 1938, which prohibited Jews from studying in public universities. He moved to France and settled in Paris with some of his family. At the outbreak of the war in September 1939, Felix was in Switzerland and was unable to return to France. Instead, he immigrated to the United States in 1940 through Chile and settled in California with his brother Bernard in 1941. In 1943 he enlisted in the United States Army and trained in the War Department’s Military Intelligence Division, with a unit known as the “Ritchie Boys" at Camp Ritchie, Maryland. After the war, Felix returned to Berkeley to complete his studies in architecture and opened his own business as an architect in San Francisco in 1948. In the early 1970s he moved to Zurich, Switzerland to manage his family's business and returned to California in 1982 where he lived until his death in 2009. The collection includes typescript memoirs and essays written by Felix Rosenthal describing his childhood in Germany, his emigration from Germany in 1933, his stay in Italy and eventual immigration to the United States, and his service in the United States Army as a “Ritchie Boy” during World War II. The collection also contains other essays and reflections from Felix’s experiences in the Army, including during his time serving with occupation forces in Germany from 1945-1947.