Unorthodox Life

UNORTHODOX LIFE. In the 1930’s , Germany, the most powerful and ruthless nation in the world, decreed that our family was to be exterminated. Rudy Rosenberg, born in Belgium in 1930 found himself and his immediate family locked in Belgium. Rudy, his sister Ruth, Hillel his Poland born father and Frieda his German born mother, Jewish and Stateless were unable to break out of Europe. The family watched the growth of Hitler and his Nazi anti-Semitic policies with increased concernhoping that unlike in the Great War (1914-1918) Belgium’s neutrality would be respected by Germany. 1935 Anti-Jewish laws began in Germany (Frieda’s family would be murdered and wiped out during (1942-1943) 1938 Hitler marched into Czechoslovakia. Hitler marched into Austria 1939 Hitler invaded Poland (Hillel’s family would be murdered and wiped out (1941-1942), we heard of Jews being hunted and killed by the German invaders. 1940 In April, Hitler invaded Denmark and Norway. 1940 in May, Hitler invaded Belgium, Holland and France. Rudy and his family watched and remembered the anti-Jewish vitriol that seeped into occupied Europe and even in previously benign Belgium. Starting in 1941 the first arrests of thousands of Belgian Jews came about. These were released through the personal intervention of Belgium’s Queen Elizabeth. (These Belgian Jews would later be arrested and deported again in 1943). In 1942, Rudy, Ruth and countless Jewish students were forbidden to continue their schooling. The family was left with limited choices. We had to either try to flee to unoccupied Switzerland or hide in convents or Christian camps or private homes. A last alternative was to await the German troops for the deadly arrest and deportation to concentration camps mostly in Poland or Germany where swift death would be certain. In June 1942 we purchased fake identity papers so we could flee to Switzerland. Unfortunately we soon learned that this escape route was too dangerous and not practical. Our parents found a safe hiding place in the Ardennes for Ruth and Rudy. For a fee Frieda found a basement to hide in Ixelles, a suburb of Brussels in a private home. Hillel, for a much larger fee, found a hiding place in a private house ini Uccle, another suburb of Brussels. For safety reasons, after about three months Ruth and Rudy left the hotel in the Ardennes.Ruth and Rudy went to hide and joined with father in Uccle. Six months later, in March 1943, Rudy went to hide with Frieda in her Ixelles basement where they remained in hiding until they were finally liberated on the 3rd of September 1944 after hiding in the basement for 17 months. The family spent over two years, 27 months, 823 days in hiding. We then tried to resume our educations, live again and become normal people again. Eventually Rudy left Europe for the USA, joined the US Army during the Korean conflict. Frieda and Ruth joined Rudy three years later. In 1991 Rudy wrote and published 'And Somehow We Survive' an account of the struggle of his family to survive. Now Rudy Rosenberg expands his life and the attempts to sort out the early life, survival and his arrival in the USA .There he details his bewildering coming to terms with his ethnic background, a faith he never knew and the religion he ran away from: AN UNORTHODOX LIFE.