Shmuel Rosenbaum papers

The Shmuel Rosenbaum papers consist of biographical materials and photographs documenting Shmuel Rosenbaum and his family before World War II in Poland and Palestine and after the war in Sweden. Biographical materials include identification papers, residence certificates, and a Swedish naturalization application documenting Rosenbaum’s birth in Radom, Poland, and his postwar life in Sweden. Photographs depict Shmuel and his family and friends in prewar Poland (Radom and Warsaw) and Palestine (Tel Aviv and Haifa) and in postwar Sweden (Konga, Malmö, Ryd, Stockholm, Tranås, and Tynningö). The photograph album formerly housed most of the photographs in the collection. The album bears a 1946 inscription to Shmuel Rosenbaum from many of the students in a Hebrew class he taught in the displaced persons community in Konga, Sweden. Most of the signatories are pictured in folder 4 (28th photograph). Shmuel Rosenbaum was born on November 9, 1917 in Radom, Poland to Yehezkel Rozenbaum (b. 1895), a rabbi and staunch supporter of Zeev Jabotinsky, and Sura Perla (b. 1898). In 1923 Rabbi Rosenbaum, Sura Perla, and Shmuel made an aliyah to Palestine. They were issued Palestinian passports by the British Mandate authorities. Seven years later they returned to Poland to attend the wedding of Yehezkel’s sister, Pola Rosenbaum, to Rabbi Posner, and the Rosenbaum family settled in Radom. After the German invasion of Poland, the Rosenbaums were forced into the Radom ghetto. In 1943 Shmuel’s parents were deported to the Treblinka killing center and killed on arrival. Shmuel was deported to Bergen-Belsen and placed in the exchange camp for Jews holding South American and Palestinian passports. Most of the prisoners were deported to Auschwitz and immediately killed. Shmuel was among the remaining 350 prisoners who were liberated by the British Army on April 15, 1945. Shmuel was taken to Sweden to recuperate from tuberculosis and later was sent to a refugee transit camp in Tynningö. Shmuel, who was an engineer, taught Hebrew and later studied architecture. He worked as an architect for 28 years, and at the same time served as a Swedish correspondent for the Viennese newspaper Neue Zeitung. Shmuel Rosenbaum married Sara, herself a survivor of the Holocaust, in 1964. Shmuel passed away, and his widow, Sara Rosenbaum, continued to reside in Stockholm, Sweden.