Concentration camp uniform pants worn by a Hungarian Jewish prisoner

Miksa Rottenberg (Max, 1902-?) was born in Dés, Austria-Hungary (now Dej, Romania) to Albert Dov (1868-1943) and Anna Rozia Dina Rosmann (Rozman, 1879-1944) Rottenberg. Anna was born to Efraim and Sara Rosmann in Falstin, Austria-Hungary (now Falsztyn, Poland.) Anna had six siblings: Shlomo, Bernhard Jakob Dov, Khain Mordekhai Markus, Hermin Khava, Rosa Rakhel, and Braindel Blanka. Albert was born to Ahron and Branise (Benus Bran) Rottenberg in Dés, and had seven siblings: Ida (later Lefkovits, 1866-?), Markes (Marton, 1870-?), Simon (1872-?), Mozes (1875-?), Mori (Chaim, 1877-?), Marim (Mari, 1879-?), and Samuel (?-1881). Albert’s father was a trader. Max had several sisters including Ilus (later Rozman, 1905-?), Elisabet Rivka (1907-1942), Erna Ester (later Weitzner, 1915-1944), Erzsebet (1917-1944), and Bozsi. The family spoke Hungarian, German, and likely Romanian. Max completed his studies through a higher technical level and worked as a civil or site engineer, possibly in construction. Dés was located in the historically contested region of Transylvania, which became part of Romania after World War I and changed its name to Dej. Throughout the interwar period, the Romanian government instituted many antisemitic policies, especially after December 1937. From 1931-1932, Max served in the military as an infantryman. Ilus married and moved to Spišská Stará Ves, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia), where she and her husband had two children. Between February 1938 and August 1941, Max and Elisabet had also relocated to Spišská Stará Ves, where they had extended family, and were living there. In fall 1938, Hungary and Poland annexed southern portions of Slovakia. In March 1939, following the German invasion and occupation of the Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia, what remained of Slovakia became an independent state with an authoritarian government that collaborated closely with Germany. In August 1940, Axis powers Germany and Italy had arbitrated a territory dispute between Romania and Hungary. The Second Vienna Award split the Transylvania region of Romania in half, and Hungary annexed the northern portion including Dej, which became Dés again. Almost immediately, the Jews, including Max’s parents Anna and Albert, and sisters, Erna, Ersebet, and Bozsi, were subjected to Hungary’s existing antisemitic race laws, modeled after Germany’s Nuremburg Laws. Many Jews also faced serious economic restrictions, and Jewish men of military age were conscripted into forced labor battalions. In November, Hungary formally joined the Axis Alliance. In September 1941, the local authorities in Spišská Stará Ves began requiring Jews like Max and his sisters to wear Star of David badges. In the spring of 1942, the Slovakian authorities began deporting Jews to concentration camps in German-occupied Poland. Elisabet was deported to Auschwitz concentration camp, and then deported to Riga in German-occupied Latvia, where she was later killed. Ilus also perished during the Holocaust. In April 1942, Max began living underground, and in June, he escaped to Hungary, where he lived in hiding with false papers. He eventually returned to his family in Dés, where his father, Albert, died in 1943. In early 1944, the Hungarian government sought to break the alliance with Germany and establish an armistice with the Allied powers. Germany retaliated by occupying Hungary on March 19, 1944, bringing additional subjugation to Jews living there. Between May 3 and 10, a ghetto — one of 13 central ghettos created in Transylvania — was established in the Bungur forest two miles from Dés. Max, his mother, Anna, his sisters, and Erna’s husband Dr. Adolf Weitzner (1899-?) were forced into the ghetto and lived on Horthy Miklos Tér. Max was arrested on May 5, and held under “protective custody.” During this time, the ghetto was liquidated, and all of the 7,674 Jews were deported to Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland by way of three transports. Max, his mother, sisters, and brother-in-law were among those deported in late May or early June, and Max arrived there on June 9. Max was then deported to Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany, arriving on June 24, 1944. He was issued a new uniform and prisoner number 59769. On June 26, 1944, Max was transferred to subcamp Bochum (Bochumer Verein) to work at the Bochum Verein für Gussstahlfabrikation AG factory (a subsidiary of the Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG). Max was likely part of an advance detachment that was sent ahead of other workers to enlarge the nearby barracks. The factory produced a large quantity of raw iron, as well as a range of armaments, railway tracks and equipment, and airplane engine parts. Bochum was evacuated on March 15, 1945, and Max was transferred back to the main Buchenwald camp. On March 26, Max was examined by a doctor, who declared him able to work and be transported. On April 11, 1945, Max was liberated by United States forces at Buchenwald. In 1946, he returned to his hometown, which once again became part of Romania. Max met Lilia Karl (b.1930), a fellow survivor. Lilia lived in Kolozsvár, Hungary (now Cluj-Napoca, Romania) with her parents, Lazar David (1905-1945) and Esther Friedman (1900-1945) Karl. In early May 1944, the family was forced into the Kolozsvár ghetto by the Hungarian police, and deported to Auschwitz in late May or early June. Esther was killed at Thorn, a subcamp of Stutthof concentration camp in Stutthof Germany (now Sztutowo, Poland), and Lazar was killed at Dachau concentration camp in Germany. Max and Lilia married on May 2, 1950, in Dej, and later had a child. Max’s sister Erzsebet was killed at Stutthof on November 22 1944. His sisters, Erna and Bozsi, and mother, Anna, were murdered at Auschwitz. Max’s brother-in-law, Adolf, was deported to Dachau on October 10, 1944, and later transferred to a subcamp, Kaufering, where he was liberated in 1945. Max later learned that almost all of his maternal aunts and uncles in Europe had perished in the holocaust, most murdered at Auschwitz. On February 14, 1965, Max, Lilia, and their son, Avner, emigrated from Romania, and sailed to Israel aboard the SS Messapia.

The pants were donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2011 by Avner Ben-Ner, the son of Max Rottenberg.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Avner Ben-Ner

Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.