Josef Rosensaft

Rosensaft was born to an affluent scrap-metal dealer in Będzin in Poland and was in his youth active in the Zionist Labor Movement.

He was injured by gunfire during the escape but walked back to Będzin, where he was captured again, given 250 lashes and confined to a chicken cage, before being sent to Auschwitz and several other concentration camps until he was sent on a death march to Bergen-Belsen, where he was liberated on April 15, 1945.

While researching their family history, Josef’s son, the noted activist Menachem Rosensaft, discovered that his father had been issued a certificate of citizenship for Paraguay.

This was one of many Latin American letters and documents produced by Rudolf Hügli and other members of the Lados group, whose network saved many lives.

After his time in the DP camp, Rosensaft went into the art collection and real estate business and lived in Montreux, Switzerland before moving to the United States in the late 1950s.