Rosa Levy (Roosje/Ro) was born on 9 June 1905 in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. On 7 September 1927, she married Emanuel de Winter (1889-1944) in Wisch.^[1] They had a daughter Judik on 27 October 1928.^[2] The family lived at Coehoornsingel 10 in Zutphen.^[3]

In late March 1943, Jewish people were banned from living in the province of Gelderland and were summoned to report to Camp Vught.^[4] Rosa de Winter therefore went into hiding with her husband and daughter with a farmer's family in the Achterhoek region in early April. After more than a year in hiding, the De Winter family was discovered and arrested on 16 July 1944.^[5] After the interrogation in Velp, they were transferred to the Detention Centre in Arnhem. On 22 July 1944, they were transported to Westerbork transit camp.^[6] There, like the eight people from the Secret Annex, they ended up in prison barracks 67. Rosa was put to work in battery demolition.^[7]

Auschwitz-Birkenau

On 3 September 1944, Rosa was deported with her husband and daughter to Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp.^[8] After arriving in Auschwitz on 6 September, the men and women were separated and selections followed. Rosa and her daughter were selected for forced labour, but her husband Emanuel was murdered in one of the gas chambers the same day.^[9] After the selection, Rosa was registered and had the number A25250 tattooed on her arm.^[10] Like Anne, Margot and Edith, Rosa and her daughter ended up in barracks 29 of Auschwitz-Birkenau after selection and registration.^[11]

In Auschwitz, Rosa survived several selections for the gas chamber. Her daughter also passed the selections, but was selected for deportation to Kratzau on 26 October 1944, where she had to perform forced labour. Anne and Margot were selected for deportation to Bergen-Belsen a few days later, leaving both Rosa and Edith without their daughters in Auschwitz.^[12] Rosa later wrote about this: 'We comforted each other and became friends.'^[13]

Due to the poor conditions in the camp, the beatings, the lack of food and the diseases that were going around, Rosa and Edith became seriously weakened. It was therefore not long before Edith was taken to the hospital barracks by Rosa. Some time later, she herself also became seriously ill and met Edith again in the hospital barracks. Rosa wrote: 'One morning new patients came in. Suddenly I recognise Edith, she has come from another infirmary. She is just a shadow. A few days later she dies, totally exhausted. '^[14] Rosa herself barely managed to survive Auschwitz. On 27 January 1945, the camp was liberated by the Soviet army.^[15]

After the war

On the journey back to the Netherlands, Rosa met Otto Frank in Katowice. Otto Frank's notebook shows that she told him on 22 March 1945 that Edith had died: '22. Mrs De Winter, Zutphen. Message death of Edith on 6. Jan. 45 in hospital from weakness without suffering.'^[16] After a three-month return journey, Rosa arrived in Roermond on 31 May 1945. There she was reunited with her daughter.^[17]

In September 1945, she was one of the first to publish her camp experiences in the book 'Aan de gaskamer ontsnapt! Het satanswerk van de S.S.: relaas van het lijden in en de bevrijding uit het concentratiekamp "Birkenau" bij Auschwitz' ('Escape from the gas chamber! The satanic work of the S.S.: an account of suffering in and liberation from "Birkenau" concentration camp near Auschwitz'). In it, she wrote, among other things, about her friendship with Edith Frank, how their daughters had to be transported and how Edith eventually died.

In 1964, she was one of the witnesses in the Second Auschwitz trial in Frankfurt am Main.^[18] Rosa died on 16 October 1985, at the age of 80.^[19] She remained friends with Otto Frank throughout her life.^[20]

Source personal data.^[19] Addresses: Coehoornsingel 10, Zutphen.^[3]