My Voice: Rosel Siev

Rosel Siev was born in Aurich, North west Germany in June 1921. She grew up in a very religious Jewish family and had a happy childhood. She was one of five children and the family were very close.

In later life, Rosel lived in Fulda and Frankfurt where she experienced Kristallnacht. She remembers walking in the street and seeing Jewish places of interest burning and being destroyed. Close non-Jewish friends turned against her and her family which impacted her greatly. Her parents thought it would be good for her to come to the UK.

She arrived in Cardiff in 1938 when she was 17 but relocated to Manchester soon after, where she was a student nurse at Crumpsall Hospital for seven years, and became a staff nurse.

Rosel married Arthur in 1947 and had two daughters. Sadly, Arthur died suddenly in April 1969. Rosel was introduced to her second husband, Asher who had also been widowed, and married him in 1971. She went to live with him in Dublin. Rosel has many grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Sadly Rosel's parents and two younger brothers were killed in concentration camps, along with many of her extended family. However, her sisters Hannelore and Hildegard survived the camps.

Rosel's book is part of the My Voice book collection, a stand-alone project of The Fed, the leading Jewish social care charity in Manchester, dedicated to preserving the life stories of Holocaust survivors and refugees from Nazi persecution who settled in the UK. The oral history, which is recorded and transcribed, captures their entire lives from before, during and after the war years. The books are written in the words of the survivor so that future generations can always hear their voice. The My Voice book collection is a valuable resource for Holocaust awareness and education.