Rosy Kanarek

Rosy Kanarek was born Reisel Guttmann on 5 October 1905 in Nowy Sącz, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (today in southern Poland), to Josef and Rivka Guttmann. Although born Reisel, she became known as Rosy and used this name throughout her life.

When Rosy was five years old, her family moved to Zurich, Switzerland, where she spent her childhood and received her education. After attending school in Zurich, she went on to study at a commercial college.

Rosy had hoped to study medicine; however this ambition was not encouraged by her father. Instead, she joined her father’s cigar import business and worked there during her young adult years.

At the age of twenty-seven, she met Sigmund Kanarek, and they married on 16 February 1932 in Frankfurt, Germany.

Soon after their marriage, the couple planned to emigrate to Palestine and waited for the necessary official papers. But Europe was changing rapidly. Following Hitler’s rise to power in Germany in 1933, life for Jewish families became increasingly uncertain and dangerous.

In 1935, Rosy and Sigmund emigrated to Palestine and settled in Ramat Gan. Their daughter, Zahava, was born in August 1935, shortly after their arrival.

Life in Palestine proved difficult for Rosy’s health. She became seriously unwell and found the climate hard to tolerate. On medical advice, the family left Palestine in April 1937, returning to Europe and settling in Amsterdam.

Their son, Jehudi, was born in the Netherlands on 16 August 1941. As conditions for Dutch Jews deteriorated during the war, Rosy and Sigmund made an agonising decision. In December 1942, they entrusted their sixteen-month-old son to members of the Dutch Resistance in the hope of saving his life.

In May 1943, Rosy, Sigmund and Zahava were deported to Westerbork transit camp in the Netherlands. In January 1944, they were deported onward to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany.

In January 1945, Rosy, Sigmund and Zahava left Bergen-Belsen and were transferred first to Weingarten and then to Biberach, where they remained until liberation in April 1945.

Throughout her imprisonment, Rosy managed to preserve an extraordinary record of her experiences through documents, letters and personal artefacts that she kept hidden and protected.

After the war, Rosy stayed with her parents in Zurich and underwent intensive rehabilitation. During this time, she gathered together not only the materials she had preserved during the war but also earlier letters, photographs and correspondence that she had exchanged with her parents before and during those years.

Her immediate family had also survived the war. Jehudi remained in hiding until liberation, and in early 1947 Rosy, Sigmund, Zahava and Jehudi were reunited in Amsterdam.

In later years Rosy moved from Amsterdam to a nursing home in Israel, where she died on 6 July 2001, aged 95.

Only after her death was it discovered that Rosy had preserved her wartime documents and artefacts, together with family letters, photographs and correspondence. Stored away for many years, the collection formed an extraordinary record of her life and experiences.