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Anna Rosmus
Anna Rosmus, from Passau, Germany, is the real-life heroine of the 1990 Verhoeven film "The Nasty Girl", who as a teenager, uncovered her hometown's hidden Nazi past. For 32 years Rosmus has dedicated her life to uncovering anti-Semitism and the Nazi past of her hometown in Bavaria, and to combat... show more

Anna Rosmus, from Passau, Germany, is the real-life heroine of the 1990 Verhoeven film "The Nasty Girl", who as a teenager, uncovered her hometown's hidden Nazi past. For 32 years Rosmus has dedicated her life to uncovering anti-Semitism and the Nazi past of her hometown in Bavaria, and to combat the Neo-Nazis in Germany. Rosmus has been presented numerous awards such as the American Society of Journalists and Authors' "Conscience-in-Media" award, the "Sarnat Prize" from the Anti-Defamation League, the Tucholsky death mask, Holocaust Survivors & Friends' "Holocaust Memorial Award" and the "Galinski Prize", the highest honor by the German Jewish Community. To honor and preserve the memory of the GIs in General Patton's 3rd US army who defeated the terror regime before they helped to launch a free society, Anna Rosmus has interviewed numerous American veterans who once fought in the Passau area or were stationed there after WWII. Since 1995, Rosmus sponsored multiple commemorations in Germany in which she brought survivors and liberators together to preserve this memory and to restore the names to the monument in Pocking featured in "60 Minutes". As a free lance writer, Rosmus has contributed numerous essays to magazines and newspapers, such as "La Pensée et les Hommes", "Holocaust and Genocide Studies", "The New York Times", "The European" and "Aufbau". Her books include "Valhalla Finale", "Ragnarök", "Pocking: End and Renewal", "Exodus: In the Shadow of Mercy", "Resistance and Persecution: Passau 1933-1939"; "Robert Klein, a German Jew Looks back", and "What I think". The University of South Carolina released her books "Against The Stream. Growing up Where Hitler Used to Live", and "Out of Passau. Leaving a City Hitler Called Home". The University followed up with "Wintergreen: Suppressed Murders", which documents some of the worst atrocities in Passau at the end of the war, including the murder of some 2,000 Soviet POWs, forced abortions performed on slave laborers, as well as and the systematic murder of infants of slave laborers in the area. It shows how memorials to the victims were changed to erase the past. Sources include a large variety of documents and oral testimonies by American GIs who worked hard to establish the facts and unveil the details of the crimes that baffled their minds and haunted many for decades.Professor Robert E. Herzstein writes in "The Journal of The Historical Society II: "Senior German historians wrote dense prose devoted to leaders and institutions, to structures, and to cumulative radicalization.. It was all appropriate - and impersonal. In the constructs and the textbooks, there was little room for inquires into local crimes and perpetrators, even when the unnamed bodies were buried near one's home and the killers lived a few blocks away. In this fog of oversight, Anna Rosmus's remarkable studies of the Passau region in Bavaria stand out as the rare exception. Despite the opposition of her teachers and of the people who ran Bavaria's educational establishment in the late 1970s, Rosmus decided to examine the history of the town of Passau during the years of the Third Reich. She has never stopped, and in the process has found the bodies and identified living culprits.."In 1986, the German TV station ARD broadcast Felix Kuballa's WDR 45-min documentary "Von deutscher Toleranz" with Anna Rosmus.In 1988, the German TV station ARD showed Henning Stegmüller's 1987 Radio Bremen 90-min documentary "Gegen den Strom" about Anna Rosmus.In 1990, the German TV station ZDF showed Michael Verhoeven's 1987 documentary "Das Mädchen und die Stadt" about Anna Rosmus.1994/95, Felix Kuballa (WDR) produced the documentary "Das Schreckliche Mädchen in Amerika". ARD featured a 60-min and a 45-min version.A biography, "Anna Rosmus-The Witch of Passau", was published in 1994 by Hans Dieter Schütt.To many veterans of Patton's Third US army, however, Rosmus is an honorary member; the sole female of a foreign nation who never carried any other weapon than the spirit and determination to overcome willful subjugation and injustice wherever it may occur.Elected honorary member of the 65th Infantry Division Association, 1995.Elected honorary member of the 71st Infantry Division Association, 2005.Elected honorary member of the 11th Armored Division Association, 2008.http://www.jodisolomonspeakers.com/annarosmus.htmlhttp://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/04/03/60ii/main179477.shtmlhttp://www.unl.edu/unlpub/special/thompsonforum/rosmus.htmlhttp://www.alma.edu/news/releases/archives/2009/03/18/rosmushttp://www.65thdiv.com/lev2/GA/index.htmlhttp://www.65thdiv.com/lev1/pdf/VF.pdfhttp://www.theverylongview.com/WATH/essays/wrapping.htmhttp://www.rememberwomen.org/05_ActivitiesBoardMembers.htm#passauHonors and Awards:"Best German Writer", for "Daten innerer und äußerer Freiheit aus Politik und Geschichte Europas" (Internal and External Freedoms taken from History and Politics in Europe) in the "Europäischer Aufsatz Wettbewerb" (European Essay Competition) in June 1980, Berlin/Paris.In 1984 Rosmus received the "Geschwister-Scholl-Preis", a literary prize by the association of Bavaria's Publishers and the City of Munich, for she "has mustered the highly inconvenient courage to reject the ready-framed historical picture of her hometown."Death mask of Kurt Tucholsky for civil courage and political commitment May 7, 1987, Hindås, Sweden.The "Holocaust Survivors & Friends in Pursuit of Justice" honored her in October 1992 with the Holocaust Memorial Award in Albany, N.Y.Legislative Resolution honoring "the tireless, courageous and often life-threatening efforts... against the acts and effects of racism, bigotry and hatred, remembering the warnings of a tragic and blackened history...to educate future generations" by the State of New York, in October 1992.Elected Member of the International "PEN-Club," in December 1993.Honored by Temple Beth El in California on April 8, 1994, "in appreciation of the humanitarian efforts to educate the world about the history of the Holocaust."Scott Kennedy, Mayor of Santa Cruz, California, proclaimed Sunday, April 10, 1994 as "Anna Rosmus Day" in the City of Santa Cruz, CA.Rosmus has received the "Sarnat Prize" from the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai Brith for those who fight anti-Jewish bigotry, June 10, 1994, in New York City.The American Society of Journalists and Authors awarded Rosmus its "Conscience-in-Media Award", honoring "those who have demonstrated singular commitment to the highest principles of journalism at notable personal cost or sacrifice," It was presented in a special program at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in September 1994Tree-Dedication in front of "Temple Israel," November 9, 1994, Albany, N.Y.The Holocaust Memorial Center in West Bloomfield, Michigan, honored Rosmus "in recognition of having exposed the facts about the role of Passau, Germany, during World War II and forcing its residents finally to confront the truth."In 1996, the "Heinz Galinski Prize", highest honor of the Jewish Community in Berlin, honored Rosmus' "commitment characterized by understanding, tolerance and mutual respect; her espousal of peace and reconciliation; the sincere way she comes to grips with history and the past." The jury's justification says, among other things: "In spite of the greatest difficulties and opposition that you were forced to confront again and again, you have rendered a very significant contribution to memory and enlightenment. Only when we remember do we have a chance of doing battle against neo-Nazism."Listed in Marquis' "Who's Who of American Woman" (first time in the 1997/1998 edition).On March 20, 1998, the D.C. Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the American Immigration Law Foundation honored Rosmus with the "Immigrant Achievement Award" as a "distinguished immigrant who through her extraordinary endeavors has made a substantial contribution to the United States of America and is a proud reflection of the values of this nation.""Myrtle Wreath Award," by Hadassah, "in recognition of selfless and fearless pursuit of the truth about the Holocaust," March 30, 1995, Washington D.C.On February 11, 1996, the 4214th USAR Hospital honored Rosmus' "enlightening research centered around the involvement of African-Americans in Germany during WWII".Listed in Marquis "Who's Who in America" (first time in the 1996 edition).Listed in Marquis "Who's Who in the World" (first time in the 1999 edition).Honorary PhD, University of South Carolina, 2000Honorary PhD, Alma College, 2009
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Passion is best expressed with a good book
Out of Passau, which is a stand alone follow up to Against The Stream, details one woman's painful experience in trying to get a town to accept their responsibility and history during World War II. The author details how she uncovered the truths of her towns' acceptance of being one of "Hitler's fav...
Chris' Fish Place
Chris' Fish Place rated it 11 years ago
Disclaimer: Review copy read via Netgalley and Open Road Media. Wintergreen is the presentation of facts and oral testimony collected by Anna Rasmus that details the war crimes that occurred in or near her native Passau. It is, apparently, a work that made her fellow residents ang...
Chris' Fish Place
Chris' Fish Place rated it 11 years ago
Disclaimer: Read via Netgalley and courtesy of Open Road Media. There is a wonderful YouTube series called “Ask a Slave”. The woman who started it, who stars in it, got the idea when she was working as a re-enactor at a historical site (I believe Mt. Vernon) and got asked stupid ...
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