Rosa May, née Rosenstein spent the last part of her life in Bad Kissingen with her daughter Bertha Steinberger, the mother of Bad Kissingen Nobel Prize Winner Jack Steinberger. She was born in Schwabach on January 10, 1864 as the daughter of Sigmund May and Bertha Brindle, née Wechsler. 

In May 1891, she married the hops dealer Moritz May in Nuremberg. They had three children: Bertha (1892-1973), Meta (1894-1974) and Siegmund (1897-1970). All three children managed to emigrate to the United States.

Rosa’s husband Moritz died in November 1926. In the following years, Rosa increasingly needed care and moved to Bad Kissingen to her daughter who cared for her until she died. In the face of increasing repressions against the Jewish minority, the Steinberger couple sent their two oldest sons to the USA as early as in 1934. They stayed in Germany for the time being, however, because they didn’t want to leave the old lady on her own. She was too old and too ill for an emigration into a faraway, foreign country.

Rosa May eventually died on August 29, 1936 at the age of 72 during a spa stay in Bad Ems. In the next year, her daughter, her husband Ludwig and their youngest son Rudolph emigrated to New York.