Rose Wittekind was born in Koenigsberg/ East Prussia on September 24, 1897 as the daughter of Aaron Wittekind and his wife Sonja, née Sembrowski. Her father had been born in Bad Kissingen and came from one of the long-established Jewish families of the spa town who had been living there for generations. As his profession, you find butcher as well as factory owner in the registration files. He had gone from Bad Kissingen to East Prussia and had married Sonja Lembrowski from Jesne there.

Rose Wittekind married Arthur Wittekind, a distant relative. Their grandfathers on the father’s side had been siblings. In May 1933, the couple left Bad Kissingen and moved to Frankfort (or Koenigsberg?).

There is only little information on Rose’s further life. Rose Wittekind and her husband succeeded in escaping from Germany. In the “Karten jüdischer vertriebener Personen und Flüchtlinge aus München, Wien und Barcelona” (cards of Jewish expelled persons and refugees from Munich, Vienna and Barcelona, 1943-1959 (JDC)) there is a card that informs you that Arthur and Rosi Wittekind with Edgar Wittekind (presumably their son) could flee from Barcelona to North America in December 1942.

Rose's sister Dora also survived the Nazi era. Her older brother Salomon and her youngest sister Nanny, however, fell victim to the Shoah. They managed to escape to France. However, they were caught in Luchon in the Pyrenees not far from the Spanish border and deported from the Drancy collection camp to Auschwitz in September 1942, where they were murdered. After the war, Rosi and other relatives of the family obtained the return of their aunt Therese's house (Zwingergasse 5) in February 1952 in a restitution process that took over three years,

after a redress procedure lasting more than three years in February 1952. The aunt had been murdered in the course of the “Euthanasia Program” of the Nazis in 1940.

Rose and her family lived in Toronto/ Canada. Rose’s husband died in North York/ Ontario in Canada in January 1985 at the age of 84. Rose Wittekind died there few days before her 100^th birthday in September 1997.