Alice Rosen

"I hope the schools will teach the Holocaust. Every generation must learn about it so it will never happen again."

Name at birth

Freya Karoline Lang

Date of birth

06/13/1934

Where were you born?

Mannheim, Germany

Name of father, occupation

Fritz Lang

Maiden name of mother, occupation

Ida

Alice Lang Rosen was born in 1934 in Lambsheim, Germany. Alice and her parents later moved to Mannheim, Germany to open a textile store. During Krystallnacht, Alice's father was taken to Dachau for a short time before being returned home. In 1940, the Gestapo raided their home and took the family on trucks to Gurs, a concentration camp in France. After a year in Gurs, the family was taken to Rivesaltes. At Rivesaltes, Alice's father put her in the care of the a children's aid society to save her. She was eventually sent to stay in a convent in the South of France, before being put into two foster homes with French families. At the end of the war, Alice stayed in a Jewish children's home outside of Paris before her father found her again. She reunited with him in Heidelberg where he remarried. Alice and her new family moved to the United States in 1949.

Name of Concentration / Labor Camp(s)

Gurs / Rivesaltes

Where were you in hiding?

When I was six years old, I was in foster homes with a Madame Didier, then a Madame Gordon in Noyer, France. Later, I was in a convent and then a children’s home in France.

When did you come to the United States?

1949

Children

Two daughters

What do you think helped you to survive?

The foster parents who took care of me. I hoped that my family would come back some day. I did as I was told. My mother died at Auschwitz; my father came back. I was an only child. I now have two daughters and five grandchildren.

What message would you like to leave for future generations?

I hope the schools will teach the Holocaust. Every generation must learn about it so it will never happen again.