Editor: Dr Saul Issroff
Copyright © 2004 Saul Issroff, Mike Getz, SAfrica SIG
and Jewishgen Inc.
URL: http://www.jewishgen.org/SAfrica/family-histories/rosenstein_w/index.htm
Date: 5 May 2004

NEWS FROM HOLOCAUST MUSEUM HOUSTON
 
13.12.2001
 
Willy Rosenstein, Jewish Aviator
 
A selection of artifacts from the Robert B. Gill Collection will be on display in Holocaust Museum Houston’s library until January 25, 2002.
 
Rosenstein was a celebrity in the early days of German aviation and a recognized World War I hero. He was a member of Jasta 27, serving under Hermann Göring in WWI, flying more than 180 combat missions. Even though he was a war hero during WWI, as conditions for Jews worsened in Germany, Rosenstein emigrated to South Africa in 1936. A passage in Rosenstein's memoir relates a strange story of receiving help in the emigration process from Göring. Rosenstein suffered many tragedies - the desertion of his wife, internment in South Africa in 1940 as a "possible enemy of the state" and finally the death of his son, Ernst, a pilot with the RAF, killed in action in 1945. Rosenstein was killed four years late in a flying accident.