Rosette Goldstein was born in 1938 in Paris, France. Her parents were from Lodz, Poland. They later move to Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany] where family members had bakeries there. Her father learned baking and her mother was a dressmaker. They had many friends and that was how they met. They both came from large families. They experienced a normal life in Berlin until Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] started the trouble for Jews. The family realized that they needed to leave the country. Some went to Palestine, some left Poland for Cuba, and Goldstein's father left for France to join the Army in 1936. In 1937, her mother joined her father and they were married in Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France]. The family scattered to whatever location they could reach to get out. Some, however, stayed in Poland.

Rosette Goldstein was born in 1938 in Paris, France. Her family moved into a one bedroom apartment where they were the only Jews in the building [Annotator's Note: her father and mother left Berlin in 1936 and 1938, respectively, due to the Nazi persecutions]. Neighbors were nice in the building. She has early memories of the Germans bombing the city and having to run to shelter in a basement below the building. The Germans came in and France began to collaborate [Annotator's Note: France fell in June 1940]. Her father was thrown out of the Army because he was Jewish. He could not find work due to his religion. Every Jew registered with the police as a requirement. The French men were arrested first. Her father was luckily not arrested. There were restrictions imposed against the Jews. Financial limitations were put in place. Her mother worked in the apartment with her sewing machine. A neighbor gave her costume making work for the theater. Arrests started for the Jews. An indoor bicycle course in Paris was used to hold 13,000 Jews who were detained by the French police. People of all ages and health conditions were arrested. Luckily, Goldstein was miraculously not arrested and saved. Many of the 13,000 people committed suicide because of the terrible conditions. The remainder were transported to French concentration camps. The French railroad management cooperated with the Nazis in removing the Jews to death camps. The men were first taken away by train. Then mothers were taken leaving the children behind. No one wanted the children so they also were sent to the camps. French citizenship was rescinded and many of Goldstein's relatives were brought to Auschwitz or gassed at other places. Goldstein's father went to work for a French-German interest. He worked as a lumberjack in different camps in France. Jewish men of different skilled professions were used as lumberjacks. Originally, they were allowed to go into the villages and buy food to send back to their families. Goldstein's father met a farmer named Monsieur Martin who he helped with his farm chores at night. The farmer took a liking to Goldstein's father. The French farmer agreed to take in little Goldstein. He already had three daughters and said that he would make four. Having to wear a Jewish star, it was too dangerous for Goldstein's mother to travel. Consequently, the next door neighbor, whose wife was providing costume work for Goldstein's mother, was asked to bring the nearly four year old little Goldstein to the country. The neighbor agreed but told the youngster not to say a word on the train. She still remembers the train station and the Nazis in their uniforms who were there. No one spoke to her and she did not speak on the train.

Rosette Goldstein met her father at a farm after fleeing Paris. They adored each other. She was not afraid because he was there. She had too much hard cider at dinner and began jumping around. She was put to bed and awoke the next morning with only strangers. The Martins were her new family. They took good care of her. Her father would visit every night. She could tell he was arriving on his bicycle when she heard him whistling a tune as he approached. Her name was never changed like some children had to do. She was not to talk to anyone. She did not attend school but learned about farm work and animals. She washed clothes in the river and churned butter. The food was mostly taken to Germany so it was scarce in France. Goldstein missed her mother but she got used to the way of life. One day, her mother arrived for a visit. Her father spent the night. The next day her father left for work but French police and Germans came looking for him and threatened the Martin family and the Goldsteins. Monsieur Martin took off on his horse to find Goldstein's father. The father returned to the camp and Goldstein's mother returned to Paris. Little Rosette Goldstein was forgotten. The family citizenships were taken away. One day, Goldstein's father stopped coming to visit. Monsieur Martin told her that they were taken. The little girl knew what that meant. She knew that her family was Jewish and that the Jews were being hunted. Her father could have attempted an escape but did not because the others with him would have been shot. He and those with him were brought to a holding camp outside Paris. On 7 December [Annotator's Note: most likely December 1943], they were transported to Auschwitz. At the death camp, they were selected to work and shipped to Monowitz. Her father helped a friend to survive. Ultimately, he would be sent to Buchenwald and then force marched to Germany. They were assigned to excavate in a mountain to create a German factory for airplane parts. He died just five days before the Langenstein-Zweiberge camp was liberated by the Americans.

For Rosette Goldstein, life on the farm continued until one day men with guns arrived. The Martin family hid Goldstein and she remained undiscovered. In a different instance, Goldstein had to be hidden in a grain silo. Again, it was a miracle that she was not found. She was meant to live. Her mother stayed in Paris and was hidden by very helpful neighbors. Goldstein only saw her mother one time during the war. The young girl stayed with the Martins until the end of the war. She remembers the bombings while a neighbor played the French national anthem on the accordion. After the war's end, her mother came to the farm to talk to Monsieur Martin. She told him in confidence that Goldstein's father would not be returning. It was difficult for the young girl to hear that. It was an exciting time with the Americans with their jeeps. The locals gave the soldiers fresh vegetables and fruit and in return they were given chocolate, canned rations and cigarettes. One of the Americans wanted to take Goldstein into a tank but she feared anyone in uniform. The Americans were kind and beautiful to her. She and her mother managed to hitchhike back to Paris in a G.I. [Annotator’s Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier] jeep. She saw her first black man at that time. He was on the front of the jeep and armed with a rifle as they rode through the forests. He was watching for snipers to prevent any enemy soldiers from shooting at them. She thought he was a very brave man. She discovered a whole new world. When they arrived in Paris, [Annotator's Note: Paris, France] it was a shambles. She stuck her tongue out at prisoners. She and her mother searched the survivor boards in hope of seeing the names of her father or other relatives. It did not happen except a grandmother did survive. Her mother worked in the one room apartment but it was difficult for her daughter to be there so she was taken to an orphan camp. She learned what being Jewish meant. The orphans were taken to Palestine. It was a happy time for Goldstein but she was not allowed to exit Europe. Instead, she was sent to Brittany [Annotator's Note: Brittany, France] where the older children abused Goldstein. She had to be removed from that environment and put in a convent. That was very hard since she had learned to be a Jew. The sisters were not very nice and Goldstein had to be removed and put with her grandmother. Her mother still could not take care of her so little Goldstein was sent back to the Martins and the farm. It was a good time. She attended school until her mother decided that Goldstein would be sent to the United States where she would stay with her aunt.

Rosette Goldstein had a fight with another schoolgirl in Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France]. They fought because Goldstein was Jewish. Shortly thereafter, she went to America. She sailed on the Queen Elizabeth for five days and was sick the duration of the voyage. Despite a welcoming committee of relatives at the pier, Goldstein's departure from the ship was delayed because of a paperwork error. When she finally got off the ship, she had communication problems because she spoke no English. Her relatives could not talk to her about her feelings. Goldstein stayed with her childless aunt. She was put in school with a very understanding teacher. It was a wonderful experience for Goldstein. She loved America. She decided not to return to France. When her visa expired, she had to go to Canada in order to re-enter the country. While in France, Goldstein was adopted by an American company that owned department stores. She was sent clothing and was sent to camps for two years. When she started school in America, it was time to go to camp. She learned English quickly because she wanted to be like every other American. America opened its arms to her and gave her a second life. She married and had children and grandchildren. She had the people in France who saved her life honored by Yad Vashem. France gave her back her citizenship but she did not accept it. She is an American now.

Rosette Goldstein was taught to not talk to others while she was sheltered by the Martin family in France during the Holocaust. Life reached a normal state with her keeping busy around the farm and waiting for her father to join her at the end of the path. [Annotator's Note: Goldstein's father initially managed to visit with his daughter each night until he was arresyed and deported.] Goldstein learned about plants and the earth from the Martins. They were courageous people to shelter her from the Germans. As a mother, she does not know if she could separate from them. She understands that her mother did it to protect her child. Nevertheless, it made Goldstein feel abandoned by her mother. She saw her father every night but saw her mother only once during the war. After the war, her mother had difficulty keeping her daughter with her even though Goldstein was an only child. It took a long time for Goldstein to understand that she was not abandoned. She did not like the situation but she understood it. Although she would have a closeness to her mother, there remained a wall between them. That was common for child survivors. Her mother passed in 2006 after being with Goldstein for a year. There are few family members left. Her mother was a big part of her children's lives. Goldstein made sure of that. She speaks more of her father than her mother but that does not have to do with the Holocaust. She made him into a saint. He was wonderful. He played with her while her mother worked. Her mother did not have the time to play. Her mother was very good to Goldstein and her children later in life. She never talked to Goldstein or her grandchildren about her experiences. Her mother made a tape for the director of Schindler's List [Annotator's Note: Stephen Spielberg]. Goldstein listened to the tape once and should do it again. It made her angry when her mother said that her daughter was happy on a farm while they were separated. Goldstein feels that her mother wanted to believe that her child was happy during the war. Hiding from German and French police searches on the farm was very frightening. Goldstein understood what was happening to Jews with the deportation to camps and killings. Those incidents were never discussed with her mother after the war.

Rosette Goldstein went to Germany to accompany her mother premised on her going to where her father was murdered in Langestein [Annotator's Note: the Langenstein-Zwieberge concentration camp] even though it was in East Germany near Halberstadt. On arrival in West Berlin, paperwork had to be completed in East Berlin. Goldstein was apprehensive about leaving her personal information with the East Germans. It was in the 1980s [Annotator's Note: a period of intense Cold War paranoia]. The process was very tedious in East Berlin until an official aided her. They did manage to get to Halberstadt where the weather was cold and the accommodations were poor. She visited the few remnants of the Langestein-Zweiberge camp. There were no memorials to the Jews, only to the Russians. She did go to the areas where there were mass graves. She knew her father was in one of them. The Americans liberated the camp five days after the death of her father and buried the dead in those large graves. She said the kaddish [Annotator's Note: the Jewish prayer for the dead] and the weather settled and all was calm. It helped Goldstein reconcile. She represents her father and his name wherever she speaks. His name will be recognized at The National WWII Museum now. When she left the camp, her young German tour guide cried. He said each year on her father's birthday, he would return to the camp and say a prayer. His father had been a Nazi. The young man invited Goldstein and her mother to his home. A special dinner was provided for them. He could not take them back to the hotel because of the curfew. He warned the women to not speak English in the taxi so they spoke French on the way back to the hotel. [Annotator's Note: Goldstein laughs.] That night, she was frightened in the hotel and slept with her passport under her pillow. The young German returned the next morning to bring Goldstein and her mother to the rail station. When the two women returned to Checkpoint Charlie, they were stopped. It was all very scary. Once they made it through, they never returned to Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany] until the wall [Annotator's Note: the Berlin Wall] came down. She would return to Germany and revisit the site of the concentration camp, but the young guide had died of cancer. The former hotel now had accommodations that had become deluxe. [Annotator's Note: Goldstein laughs at that transformation.]

Rosette Goldstein decided to begin speaking in public of her experiences during the Holocaust as a result of her trip to Germany to survey where her father had been killed. [Annotator's Note: Goldstein's father had been killed at the Langenstein-Zweiberge concentration camp near Halberstadt, Germany on 6 April 1945.] She speaks with high school students and travels with seniors to the Museum in Washington. [Annotator's Note: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.] She has also taken the students to the Black Museum which was quite a wonderful experience. [Annotator's Note: The National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.] She began telling her story to her children about the time she went to Germany. They had suspected that Goldstein was a survivor but had not been told. Goldstein thought until then that because she was hidden and survived that she did not suffer as much. She knows that all survivors suffered in their own way. It was a revelation to discover that there were other people like her. The feelings were the same even though the stories were different. There was a comfort gained from each other. She belongs to a group of Child Survivors who are all great friends of hers. When she reached America, Goldstein wanted to be like everyone else yet there was something very different about her. She critiqued herself from the outside back then but that has diminished through the years. [Annotator's Note: Goldstein laughs.] She never talked to schoolmates about her wartime experiences. Her classmates were just interested in her being from France. The French background may have helped her get her job with American Airlines. She was the second Jewish person to be employed by the airline. Being French was a plus even though she was not [Annotator's Note: Goldstein's parents fled Berlin in 1936 and 1937 to Paris where Goldstein was born in 1938]. She never felt anti-Semitism in America although she sees it now. She does not like what is happening today. The memories that are brought back are extremely frightening. Everyone should fight against the scourge of hatred. There are no real differences between people. We can do so much together. Everyone has culture and something to give the world. It makes her sad so she speaks to young people about it. She draws an analogy with a box of colors that are all individually beautiful, just like people.

As a result of her wartime experiences, Rosette Goldstein has been made aware of the worth of other people and what they can give to the world. History can be repeated if it is not prevented. A swastika was painted on the Goldstein's door by a bully at school. Goldstein refused to have it painted over at first. The police came to their home. Her husband went to the bully's family and spoke to them about it. Goldstein did not feel good about that incident. No other times had prejudice been perpetrated against Goldstein in America. She has many friends today who are not Jewish. Goldstein will likely continue to give the world her story until she cannot do it anymore. She speaks of those who acted to save her life even though it was so dangerous. Those righteous Christians are honored also at Yad Vashem in Israel. It took two years for her to have the French family that saved her honored. There was a ceremony in the small French town in honor of the family and Goldstein. She discovered that the whole town knew she was in hiding. Another family also sheltered a Jewish child. The three Martin sisters, Denise, Simone, and Odile were there at the ceremony to honor their deceased parents as well as what they did. It was not just Christians but people of other faiths that helped Jewish children survive. It is important to remember what happened during those dark times.