Mendel Rosenberg
GEDCOM reconciliation and Mendel's public first-person oral history support birth on 18 September 1928 in Königsberg, East Prussia (now Kaliningrad). He grew up in Šiauliai, Lithuania, and survived the Šiauliai ghetto, Stutthof and Dachau/Mühldorf camp systems. He was detained with his brother Shimon/Simon; their father was Samuel/Shmuel. immigrated to the United States in March 1947, served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, and later recorded survivor testimony. His 2021 obituary gives death on 27 July 2021. Exact genealogical assertions from the GEDCOM remain derivative until matched to underlying records.
- Record ID
- P-047
- Name variants
- Mendel Rozenberg
- Birth
- September 18, 1928
- Death
- July 27, 2021
- Family lines
- Rosenberg–Šiauliai survivor line
- Related people
- Recha Rosenberg, Shimon Rosenberg, Samuel Rosenberg
- Places
- —
- Sources
- Beyond the Shoah - 5: Remembering Fort Knox Soldiers, Families affected by the Holocaust, Missouri Veterans History Project oral history - Mendel Rosenberg, Mendel Rosenberg oral history
Evidence-backed claims
Geoff Silverstein confirmed the family roles twice, most recently on 25 September 2026: Samuel/Shmuel was the father and Shimon/Simon was the brother detained with Mendel. S-121, S-088 and S-132 use the names in reverse. Because those published and family-derived accounts are not independent contemporary identity records, their role labels remain explicit contradictions rather than silently overriding the confirmed family identification.
Geoff Silverstein confirmed on 25 September 2026 that the murdered father was Samuel/Shmuel and that he was shot soon after the invasion. Mendel's published oral-history wording and a later U.S. Army account label the murdered father Simon, creating a name-role conflict that is preserved. The broad killing is family-confirmed; no exact date is adopted.
Mendel recounts this persecution and survival sequence in his first-person 1985 oral history. Public museum and U.S. Army biographical material independently describe the same broad survivor history.
The U.S. Army's 2021 institutional biography provides the service chronology and photographs, while the State Historical Society of Missouri catalog independently identifies Mendel's 2011 Army/Korean War veterans oral history.
Geoff Silverstein confirmed on 25 September 2026 that Shimon/Simon—not Samuel—was the brother detained with Mendel and later killed. Older testimony summaries and institutional captions apply the name Samuel to that brother. The catalog and memorial records currently filed under Samuel cannot be assigned to Shimon solely by swapping names; they remain unresolved identity leads.
Mendel's first-person testimony describes liberation by the Americans on 5 May 1945 and his postwar move to Feldafing, including work for the American Army. The museum summary and later Army biography independently preserve the same broad sequence.
The St. Louis Holocaust Museum page links a document explicitly labeled 'Mendel's Embarkation Card 2-27-1947' and a separate 'Bremen Passenger Ticket.' The supplied GEDCOM places Mendel and Recha in adjacent entries in both the DP passenger collection (1,61704::80403 and ::80402) and the New York passenger collection (1,7488::3037698361 and ::3037698360), strongly supporting joint travel. An independent contemporary travel-diary chronology for another passenger records boarding SS Marine Flasher at Bremerhaven on 28 February 1947, arrival at New York on 13 March, and overnight quarantine before harbor entry on 14 March. JDC's archival file 1199 confirms that its Marine Flasher 1946-1948 holdings contain passenger lists. This voyage fits the Rosenbergs' indexed 27 February departure and 13/14 March arrival unusually well, but no Rosenberg manifest row or JDC passenger-list row has yet been directly inspected; those context sources are therefore not treated as direct support for the person-specific claim.
Geoff Silverstein confirmed that Shimon/Simon was the brother detained with Mendel. Mendel's testimony supports his own child forced labor, while later summaries call the leather-factory brother Samuel. That name label is retained as contradictory evidence; exact labor assignments for Shimon remain unproved.
Geoff Silverstein confirmed that Shimon/Simon was the brother detained with Mendel. Published testimony summaries describe the same broad persecution and separation sequence but use the name Samuel. Existing Samuel camp locators may describe a different person or preserve the same name confusion; they are not reassigned to Shimon without person-specific contemporary evidence.