WELCOME

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

V

W

Z

CREDITS

Rosemarie Molser, born Rosemarie Marienthal in Bochum, Germany, in 1921 was 12 years old when Hitler came to power.

The daughter of a prominent lawyer and a concert pianist, she had lived a privileged life with her two sisters. Outspoken and critical of Hitler's treatment of the Jews, Rosemarie was expelled from her German private school.

Her parents sent her to a convent school in Switzerland. When she returned home in November 1938, Rosemarie witnessed her house being vandalized during Kristallnacht.
She was again forced to leave German.

Rosemarie found employment in England, first as a housekeeper then as a nanny. When war broke out between England and Germany in September 1939, Rosemarie decided to join Herbert Molser, a German doctor practicing in the Belgian Congo. Although she had never met him, she had corresponded with him since her student days in Switzerland. Upon arrival in the Congo, she found out that the laws had changed and she had to marry Herbert immediately or be forced to return to Germany. The couple faced many hardships together -heat, illness and near starvation when they were imprisoned as "enemy aliens" with other German nationals. Eventually Herbert was allowed to return to treating patients, which he did until the end of the war. They immigrated to the U.S. in 1945.

Biography written by: Barbara Appelbaum