Willy Rosen

German cabaret artist, composer, and lyricist, born July 18, 1894 in Magdeburg, Germany, died September 30, 1944 in KZ Auschwitz-Birkenau). After training as a wholesale seller of textiles in Berlin, Rosen served as a German soldier on the Eastern front in WW1 where he wrote songs for front theaters and started his first band, the Kapelle Rosen, but also suffered serious wounds. Having returned to Berlin, Rosen began playing the piano and singing his own songs in cafés, cabarets, and movie theaters. He became so popular that he performed on the radio, recorded around 50 titles on records, toured several European countries, wrote film music, and even played smaller roles in the new sound movies. Twice he was awarded the Goldene Geige (golden violin) in the national German hit contest, the Deutscher Schlagerwettbewerb. When the Nazis banned Rosen from performing in Germany because of his Jewish origins, he successfully toured Switzerland, Austria, and the Czechoslovak Republic; only in 1937 did he emigrate to the Netherlands. After Germany invaded the Netherlands, Rosen was arrested and interned in Westerbrook where he continued to perform for fellow internees. In 1942, he was sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp and from there to Auschwitz where he was murdered in the gas chambers on the day of his arrival, September 30, 1944.