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For the following day I had planned for them to attend a short memorial service to be held at the cathedral. I felt it was especially important to ask students from local schools to participate in this event. During the time of the American military government in Passau, on 7 May 1946 the Passauer Neue Presse briefly reported in a story—buried within its pages—about a local church service.
Despite the praise she had earned around the world, officials and citizens of Passau continued to obstruct her work. In this memoir, Rosmus relives her turmoil over whether to stay in Passau or to leave; describes the more open-minded world she found in Washington D.C.; and discusses how she has been able to carry on her research from the United States. Earlier, in 1988, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of Kristallnacht, or the Night of the Broken Glass (the pogrom of 9–10 November 1938), the city of Passau had stubbornly refused to invite survivors of the Passau concentration camp. Instead, the citizens had decided to commemorate the occasion at the site of the heroes cemetery, or Heldenfriedhof, where, alongside five hundred SS soldiers, the body of General von Hassenstein lay buried. This, I now realize, should not have come as a surprise to me. After all, the few murdered Russians who had initially been buried there were later systematically exhumed and reburied in locations outside the city.
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This book is the follow-up to her first memoir Against the Stream and is an extremely interesting account of Passau during the war as well as a chronicle of her own family. It’s another important addition to Holocaust literature, and one that is both readable and engaging, although inevitably heart-rending and frequently shocking. Among my favorite passages are Asmus's description of Elie Wiesel and her description of her new home.
The Holocaust, or Shoah, will only be kept from happening again if people choose not to look the other way. Ms. Rosmus contacted me and asked me for an honest review in exchange for a copy of this book, which I readily did. I intend to read her other books and I thank the author for bringing this book to my attention. She had lived in Passau, Germany, her entire life, yet she was unaware that the father of Heinrich Himmler had once been a professor at the college-preparatory high school she attended or that Adolf Hitler and other prominent Nazi party members had grown up just across the Danube River in Austria.
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He had done so at the end of 1945 by physically confronting the SS man in charge of deportation, Hans Merbach, and demanding that he recall the order of execution by firing squad that was set to take place there in Nammering and immediately release the prisoners from the train cars in which they were being held. In addition, he had personally collected enough food from the people in his small community to feed the prisoners, of whom almost all were Jews, during the period that the train would remain in Nammering before leaving for Dachau. Many would nevertheless perish during the transport, but many others, who would have met a certain death by firing squad in Nammering, had him to thank for their lives. During the weeks and months that followed, American occupiers forced the population to disinter the mass graves, remove and clean the bodies, and then rebury them individually, properly in simple wooden coffins. The citizens were made to erect memorials and crosses, and plant flowers on the graves of the murdered.
These stories also include some horrifying and some touching ones concerning Passau. Connections are made to Hitler, who spent time in the city, as well as to the lingering Nazism of some the citizens. Which means at times it reads almost like two books in one – part city history, part personal history. In some ways, it is about guilt of a country and coming terms with it. But this dual personality at times leaves the reader wondering what the purpose is.
More Books by Anna Elisabeth Rosmus
In spite of repeated warnings, a professor at the local preparatory school, Dr. Maidhof, ran out into the streets in order to inform the people of the Americans’ arrival. When he not only ignored yet another appeal but proceeded to scream insults at the Americans, he was shot. Thus, in 1994, exactly one year before the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the war, I conceived of the idea to organize a service in the Passau Cathedral to commemorate the victims and to include the American liberators of Passau. My suggestion was ignored at first, not to say flat out rejected. In spite of repeated warnings, a professor at the local preparatory school, Dr. Maidhof, ran out into the streets in order to inform the people of the Americans' arrival.
Was it family heritage, a strong moral compass, or the happenstance of her hometown that contributed to the steadfast courage of Anna Elisabeth Rosmus? Whether it is some combination of these factors -- or something else entirely -- the fact remains that since the age of 20, Rosmus has delved into the role her hometown played in grievous events during and just after World War II. Very interesting, especially the history of her family and their perspective on life in the 1930’s and 1940’s. The second half of the book is more about what Rasmus learned about herself and people in general as she traveled in doing her research.
Out of Passau : : Leaving a City Hitler Called Home, Anna E Rosmus, (ebook)
I planned to invite them to return to Passau to give testimony, and to celebrate the anniversary of the end of these crimes against humanity. "ALL COWARDLY TRAITORS WILL BE PUT TO DEATH! LONG LIVE GERMANY! LONG LIVE THE FÜHRER!" So read the final appeal, read by many of the citizens of Passau, on Monday, 30 April 1945, in what was to be the final issue of the local newspaper, the Donauzeitung. In many ways, this is one of the most terrifying Holocaust books. Horrified we look back on the terrors and tortures committed against the Jews under Hitler, but we have some comfort in viewing the guilty faces of the civilians forced to view the sites. Anna Rosmus has spent her life trying to reveal and document the role of the everyday person in aiding the atrocities of the Nazis in her home town of Passau.
We just recently went on a river cruise and found and ordered the book when looking up information about Passau. I hate to post a bad review but I just couldn’t get into this book. Finally I thought...heck with this...I have other books waiting to read.
She never dreamed her youthful research would be the start of a distinguished publishing career and that her life would be the basis for the 1990 Academy Award-nominated film "The Nasty Girl". Since Rosmus had no knowledge of these and other Nazi affiliations and activities in her hometown, she embarked on her essay project confident that the Passau citizenry would be proud of her findings. She never dreamed her youthful research would be the start of a distinguished publishing career and that her life would be the basis for the 1990 Academy Award-nominated film The Nasty Girl. Passau, Germany, her entire life, yet she was unaware that the father of Heinrich Himmler had once been a professor at the college-preparatory high school she attended or that Adolf Hitler and other prominent Nazi party members had grown up just across the Danube River in Austria. About her fateful decision to expose her hometown's Nazi past. In this volume Rosmus recounts her determination after years of persecution, threats and physical attacks to immigrate to the United States.
This "fame" would, of course, have been severely damaged had anyone pointed out that the factory, which today manufactures cog-wheels, had interned concentration camp prisoners, using them as slave labor to make parts for German tanks. Nevertheless, one day before the American veterans were to arrive, the city of Passau had arranged for a similar event, something they called a commemoration celebration, to take place on 2 May, the day of the occupation of Passau by the Americans. The celebration began at five-thirty in the evening, at the Innstadt cemetery in Passau. Not a single survivor of the various concentration camps and not a single former slave laborer had been invited to participate. Once again, the city held its celebration at the location of the SS graves, where they erected a Hungarian cross, the symbol of the Hungarian SS. In the meantime, a Star of David had been cemented into the ground directly before the gravesite of the SS General Hassenstein. The Jewish community of Lower Bavaria was sent an invitation to formally participate in the celebration, which its president, Israel Offmann, had refused.
The cathedral orchestra, conducted by Choral Director Kühberger performed. Bishop Simon Konrad Landersdorfer blessed the former prisoners, and in the end, the hymn Almighty God, We Praise You was sung. "The priest," the story reported, had delivered "an impressive sermon." A delegation of men and women, former prisoners of Mauthausen, were present at the event. Bishop Simon Konrad Landersdorfer blessed the former prisoners, and in the end, the hymn "Almighty God, We Praise You" was sung. Anna Elisabeth Rosmus, from Passau, Germany, is an author, human rights activist, and the real-life heroine of the Academy Award–nominated film The Nasty Girl . For thirty-three years she has dedicated her life to uncovering the Nazi past of her hometown in Bavaria and to combating neo-Nazis in Germany.
"Dictators are possible only because of the people who support them and follow their orders." Bravo, sadly, Anna Rosmus. Gives details of the present day cover up of shocking events in city of Passau during Nazi Reich. Anna Rosmus, from Passau, Germany, is the real-life heroine of the 1990 Verhoeven film "The Nasty Girl", who as a teenager, uncovered her hometown's hidden Nazi past. Know that Asmus is respectful and reserved in her descriptions, but that the information by its very nature is stark and painful, even for those of us a hemisphere and decades removed. Thus, expect that you may need to read a few passages at a time. I can't imagine the toll of making these discoveries avout your home, coping with widespread denial, and persisting in bearing witness.
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