Max and Rose Feld papers

Raisa (Rose) Szteinberg was born in Pinsk, Poland in 1917 to Michel and Tauba Szteinberg. She had two other sisters; Clara and Alexandria (Sara). When she was five, the Szteinberg family moved to Warsaw, Poland. Rose was born without hearing, and attended a school for the deaf, but her parents were not pleased with the school. Rose was sent to a school for the Jewish deaf in Berlin. While there, she met Max Feld, a deaf classmate. The two attended school until graduation in 1932. Towards the end of their enrollment, the two began to date, and continued even after Rose’s departure back to Warsaw with her family. The Szteinberg family moved again in 1933 to Paris, France, in response to the rise of anti-Semitism spreading through Poland. Max Feld, continued to live in Berlin, until he was forced to leave the country as a refugee. Max, his parents Wolf and Martha, and his brothers Sidney and Alfred, all moved to Paris as well. Max later married Rose, and in 1941, Rose gave birth to Esther. Only a few months later, the occupation of France began, and the Gestapo took Max to Beaune-la-Rolande internment camp. Rose visited him several times at the camp, before Max was eventually sent to and killed at Auschwitz. In the meantime, Rose worked at a coat factory for the Germans in Paris, before going into hiding along with her mother Tauba, her sister Sara, and Esther, thanks to the aid of friends Marcel and Marcella Demay. Soon, Rose and her family traveled to Villepinte and stayed with several other families. For a time, the Treme family took in Esther while Rose, Tauba and Sara stayed in the farmhouse. They stayed hidden until the end of the war. Soon after, the family attempted to gain visas to Venezuela and the United States. They attempted to go to New York but arrived in Galveston, Texas, before eventually making it to their intended destination. Their stay was temporary though, and the family moved to Caracas, Venezuela, for three years, until Rose met Ted Rosman in 1950 on another trip to New York City. The two married and Rose and Esther were granted US citizenship.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Esther Feld Weisel

The Max and Rose Feld papers were donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum by their daughter Esther Weisel, in 2005.