Rosalia Lien, née Falkenstein, worked in Bad Kissingen as a domestic help in the last years before her emigration. She was born in Hochneukirch (now in the District of Rhein-Neuss in North Rhine Westfalia) on April 5, 1905. Her father owned a textile business there.After attending elementary school in her home town and industrial school in Rheydt, Rosalia (called Rosi by the family) completed an apprenticeship in her parents' company and then worked as a trainee at a company in Dortmund.

In 1923, Rosalia’s father died of the consequences of the injuries he had suffered in World War I. His wife Jeanette took over his manufactured goods business and Rosalia returned to Hochneukirch after her father's death and successfully managed her father's business until the National Socialists came to power. After 1933, the boycott measures of the National Socialists led to a sharp decline in income, and Rosalia therefore decided to accept employment as a domestic servant. In June 1935, she initially found employment in Bausendorf/Kr. Wittich, which she lost again after only a few weeks, as she reported in the reparation proceedings after the war: "After a few weeks, I received a ban on moving in from the police because I was Jewish, and on the same day my employer's apartment was smashed up by an incited mob: I myself was mistreated and taken into protective custody by the police in Wittich, where I spent a few days" (quoted from: "Ausgegrenzt, ausgeliefert, ausgelöscht, überlebt? Jüdische Schicksale in Jüchen zwischen Spenrath und Damm", published by the director of the municipality of Jüchen, 1998, p. 120). The consequences of the mistreatment were so severe that Rosalia had to be treated regularly by a Jüchen doctor for almost six months. 

Rosalia then moved to Bad Kissingen in November 1935 and worked as a housemaid for Salomon Leuthold on the market square. She became engaged to his son Leo. During the November pogrom in 1938, she was taken into "protective custody" for one day, but continued to stay in her position in Bad Kissingen to support her mother in Hochneukirch, who had to close the textile store in 1938. Rosalia Falkenstein continued to live in the Franconian spa town until February 1939 and then - after a short stay in her home community of Hochneukirch - emigrated to Great Britain in May 1939. Her mother Jeanette died in Hochneukirch in November 1940. Her fiancé Leo managed to escape to the United States in August 1939 and he also tried to get Rosalia there, but the Americans wouldn’t give her a visa (Jenny Goldfinger née Lien, daughter of Rosalia, email 09-16-2023).

Her oldest brother Richard also managed to flee to England in 1939, the two of them lived in Hampstead/ London. The other siblings, however, became victims of the Shoa: her brother Kurt, who had married Betty Lüchenheim in 1938, was deported to Riga together with his wife in 1941 and murdered there. And her sister Johanna, who had married the clerk Kurt Sommer from Witten in 1939, was deported with her husband and their 2-year-old son Bert from Cologne to Minsk and murdered in 1942.

The first years in England were not easy for the now 34-year-old: "After my arrival, I was given a position as a housemaid in an English household. Until the outbreak of the war, I was able to pursue my work, which was in the coastal area. After the outbreak of the war I also lost this position. Until 1947, for lack of the necessary language skills and also in view of my poor state of health, I could only accept subordinate positions, initially in the household and later in hotel businesses." (Ibidem; p. 121)

Rosalia Falkenstein married the tailor Leopold Lien in Hampstead in October 1947, who had lived in Berlin until 1938. According to the Fürth memorial book, he was deported to Bentschen in October 1938 as part of the so-called "Polenaktion". He was able to return to Berlin in May 1939, but left Germany shortly afterwards in August and went into hiding in Italy. He stayed there illegally in Milan until he was arrested in June 1940. He was imprisoned in the Ferramonti di Tarsia Camp in southern Italy, which was liberated by the British Army in September 1943. Leopold Lien survived the Nazi era and emigrated to England in 1947. In 1948, their daughter Jennifer was born. 

Leopold Lien died in Hampstead/ London in 1977. Rosalia Lien lived on till June 1994. She died in Camden/ Greater London at the age of 89. 

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