Rosa Krotoszyner

Little is known about Rosalie Krotoszyner (née Lubliner), also known as Rosa or Rose. Rosa was born on October 17, 1884 as the daughter of Moritz and Johanna Lubliner (née Friedmann) in Kempen (also known as Langenfurt, today Kępno). She was one of seven children. The family was part of the Jewish religious community. At an unknown date, Rosa Lubliner moved to Berlin, where she married Leo Krotszyner (1879-1941), a merchant from Breslau, on August 4, 1914. In 1916, the Berlin address book lists Riehlstraße 13 in the Charlottenburg district as probably the family's first residential address in Berlin. A year earlier, on July 28, 1915, their daughter Johanna Marie was born. Helmut was born in Berlin on March 27, 1917 and Manfred Moritz Ludwig Krotoszyner on June 19, 1919.

According to the Jewish address book of Berlin for the years 1929/30, the Krotoszyner family now lived at Berliner Str. 153 in Berlin-Charlottenburg. Since 1929, the Berlin address book listed the address “NW 87, Hansaufer 6” as the new residential address. In 1933, the family had moved to their last reported Berlin address at Siemensstraße 13-14, Berlin Tiergarten, which corresponds to the only vaguely recognizable entry in the volume Biologische Spaziergänge durch Kleintier- und Pflanzenwelt. The census taken in the German Reich on May 17, 1939 showed that all family members were still registered at Siemensstraße 13-14.

The family was at the hands of the Nazi persecution authorities. In the fall of 1941, the family must have received the deportation order. Even before the deportation took place, Rosa Krotoszyner died on October 29, 1941 in the Jewish Hospital in Iranische Straße in Berlin-Gesundbrunnen. The cause of death stated in her death certificate was “angina pectoris”, a narrowing of the coronary arteries. The funeral took place on November 3, 1941. A few days later, on November 14, 1941, widower Leo Krotoszyner and his children had to assemble at the Berlin-Grunewald train station. The Krotszyner family was deported to the Minsk ghetto with 1,026 other people on the “5th Osttransport”. After the transport reached Minsk on November 18, 1941, all traces of the Krotszyner family were lost. Leo Krotszyner and his children Johanna, Helmut and Manfred were murdered in the Shoah.

Based on the accession numbers, the two identified books are two different accessions. The book with the title “Little Ford Fauntleroy” was entered in the accession book “Purchase 1942” under the consecutive number “3028”. It was intended for use and was incorporated with the shelf mark “III 75530 4th Ex.”. The supplier was the Städtische Pfandleihanstalt and thus the same seller from whom the Berlin City Library acquired around 40,000 books in 1943, which were proven to have come from the last apartments of deported Berlin Jews. Correspondence between the BStB and the Städt. Pfandleihanstalt on the background to the acquisition has not yet been found. In addition to the provenance listed here and in view of other copies purchased in 1942, it can be assumed at this point in time that the books acquired were also Nazi looted property that was confiscated from Berlin Jews.

The second book was incorporated into the accession book “Gift 1945” and was given the shelf mark “Kg 1386”. It was also intended for use. The name “Ritter” is noted as the supplier in the accession book. This refers to Max Ritter. Jeanette Toussaint was able to clearly identify the person in 2018 using files in the Berlin State Archives. It was Max Ritter, a former secondary school principal, who had donated 5,000 books (primarily historical and educational textbooks, but also art history and foreign-language works) to the BStB in July 1945. Even though he himself was not persecuted during the National Socialist era, there is evidence that the collection contained books such as those by Rosa Krotoszyner, which are clearly Nazi-looted property.