Käthe Rosenbaum (1906-?)

Käthe Rosenbaum submitted this application to be officially recognised as a victim of fascism around 1945

• © Centrum Judaicum, Berlin

Käthe Rosenbaum was born in Hamburg on 14 October 1906 as Käthe Lindenbaum. Her parents, Cläre and Isidor Lindenbaum, were both Jewish. Her father worked as a merchant. Käthe also had a brother called Herbert. Käthe completed her training as an X-ray assistant at the Urban Hospital in Berlin. In 1924, she married Arno Lorenz, a member of the KPD (Communist Party of Germany). He was arrested in 1933 and had to leave Germany as a punishment. He died a short time later in Amsterdam. Sometime after Arno Lorenz's death, Käthe met Paul Rosenbaum, whom she married on 15 November 1941. Käthe and Paul were both active in the "League for Human Rights" and held anti-fascist and pacifist meetings in their flat. This provided a major target for the Gestapo. After an interrogation, Paul Rosenbaum was deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp for five months in 1938. He returned seriously ill and suffered several strokes. Käthe took care of her husband and organised treatment at the Jewish Hospital in Berlin.

On 04 March 1943, Käthe and Paul were arrested in their flat in Berlin-Wilmersdorf. Käthe was initially taken to the Große Hamburger Straße detention centre while Paul, on the other hand, was sent to the Jewish Hospital. Due to her husband's serious illness, both were deported to Theresienstadt on 16 June 1943 on the "91st transport of the elderly" and not directly to an extermination camp. In Theresienstadt, Käthe Rosenbaum worked as a machine operator in a large laundry. Paul Rosenbaum died on 20 February 1944 in the "infirmary" in Theresienstadt.

Käthe was finally deported to Wulkow on 28 June 1944. It is not clear what exactly she did there, only this description exists: "On 28 June 1944, I was sent to the Wulkow concentration camp. My stay there was hell." The "Wulkow chapter" ended for Käthe on 15 September 1944, when she was deported to the detention centre in Berlin's Schulstraße. Due to a serious illness, she was finally transferred to the Jewish Hospital on 25 December 1944. While there, she avoided several deportations to Ravensbrück due to her illness and was finally liberated on 22 April 1945. After making a full recovery, Käthe was released from hospital on 01 July 1945.

On 27 October 1945, Käthe submitted a so-called OdF ("Opfer des Faschismus") application to be recognised as a victim of fascism in order to receive compensation payments and other possible aid. Due to her history of persecution and her OdF identity card, this application was most likely approved.