Eric Rosenow - August 5, 1982
Introduction
...three. Testing. One, two, three. August 5th, 1982. Interview with Eric Rosenow, Southfield, Michigan. Interviewer Sherry Weisberg.
My name is Eric Rosenow. Present address 24290 Coolidge, Oak Park, Michigan.
Would you start out by telling me about your life before the war...
Mm-hm.
...what it was like for you...
Yes.
...where you were.
Are you on?
Yes.
I was born in uh, Germany and Berlin. And uh, as a child, I worked in uh, theatre and movie business, as an actor. In nineteen hundred and thirty-four, just short of the Hitler--began to come to power, I created a band--an orchestra--where I played very successfully. Uh, I couldn't do this very long, because after 2 years, it was no more allowed that Jewish people could perform music, or be in the theatre business, or be in the movie industry uh, so this was the first profession what came where the Jewish people were eliminated.
The very first profession to get eliminated.
The very first--the movie and the theater performance was the first one, the music came a little bit later, little bit later. But the movie industry and the theater industry uh, was the first one where the Jewish people was eliminated, immediately. Uh, this--my music career in Germany lasted about 2 years. That was the end. Hitler eliminated uh, for the Jewish people perform for Gentile people. Then uh, we could play only for Jewish people, closed societies, weddings, and bar mitzvahs, whatever it was but no more for, for Gentiles. In nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, I finally uh, reached the decision to leave Germany, willingly or not willingly, because I'd been caught up every day by the Gestapo, when finally, "You're leaving, get out from Germany." So I booked uh, two tickets with my brother and we left in uh, end of March, Berlin through Italy, and we took a ship and went to Shanghai.
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