Courtroom drawing of the Klaus Barbie trial

David Rose was born in Malden, MA on March 10, 1910, to Jewish immigrants who had come to the United States to escape persecution under Russian czars. He described the language of his home as a "spicy Lodzer Yiddish." Rose studied in Haifa, Israel at the School of Music and Fine Arts in Boston and graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art in 1934. Mr. Rose worked with advertising agencies in Boston and New York before moving to Hollywood and working for several studios as an animator, lay-out artist, publicity artist, art director, illustrator, and designer. During World War II, Rose was a sargeant in the Army unit that created training and propaganda films. Ted Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss) was his superior officer and a life-long friend. In August 1945, Rose married Ida Claire Shapiro, they had two daughters, Marsha Rose-Shea and Lisa Rose. Rose began his courtroom career in 1973 with the trial of Daniel Ellsberg. He covered many infamous trials including Klaus Barbie, Patty Hearst, Sirhan Sirhan, members of the Manson family, and John DeLorean.

Klaus Barbie (1913-1991), was the SS-Obersturmfuehrer and the Gestapo Chief of Lyon in German occupied France. Barbie was born in Bad Godesberg, Germany on October 25, 1913. Following a stint in the Hitler Youth, Barbie joined the SS and SD after September 26, 1935. He joined the NSDAP later, in May 1937. In Lyons, he was head of Section IV, the Gestapo, at SD headquarters. From 1942 to 1944, Barbie allegedly committed numerous war crimes which earned him the name "The Butcher of Lyons." Most notably, he was responsible for the torture of French Resistance hero Jean Moulin and the deportation of the children from the village of Izieu. A military court in Lyons sentenced him to death in absentia in 1954. Both French and German authorities sought to track Barbie down, but after the war the United States helped him escape to South America in return for information he had. He lived under the pseudonym Klaus Altmann. He was discovered living in La Paz, Bolivia in 1960, but extradition attempts to Germany and France failed. In 1983, he was expelled from Bolivia and captured in French Guiana. On July 4, 1987 he was sentenced to life imprisonment for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Rhone Court of Assize after a highly publicized trial.

The drawing was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1992 by David Rose.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of David Rose