Rose Schindler was born in Czechoslovakia. In 1944, along with over 400,000 other Hungarians from the region, was shipped off to Auschwitz, the death camp for work, "or to be murdered,” Steven Schindler said.
His mother’s parents and five siblings were among the thousands killed in the gas chambers.
“I can place myself in Auschwitz right now and tell you exactly what it looks like, how many barracks there are and how many dead people,” Rose Schindler told NBC 7 in 2019.
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When World War II ended, she eventually ended up in a hostel in Bedford, England, where she met her husband, Max Schindler, also a Holocaust survivor. Her two sisters stayed behind in Czechoslovakia because they were much older than her and were unable to satisfy the age requirement for rehabilitation, according to her son, Steven Schindler.
Both moved to Brooklyn, Nee York, and eventually to San Diego in 1956.
Her remarkable story of survival is what makes her invaluable to our community, even after her death on Feb. 17, 2022.
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“My mom is a powerhouse; she has been telling her story ever since she was first invited to my middle school when I was in the play, "Ann Frank." I was Peter and my teacher learned that my parents were Holocaust survivors,” Steven Schindler said.
From that moment, Rose Schindler dedicated the last 50 years of her life to sharing her story.
“She knew ever since seeing her father for the last time, she knew that she would be reminding the world of the atrocities that she and her family experienced,” Steven Schindler said.
“He said, stay alive so you can tell the world what they’re doing to us,” Rose Schindler said in 2019, recounting one of the last times she spoke to her father at Auschwitz.
She reached somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000 students, speaking to not one or two, but three generations.
“I think on one hand, she was hoping to protect us, and our children, and your children from this happening in the future. And on the other hand, I think that she might have found, as difficult as it was for her to share about her experience, that it was cathartic and that it satisfied this request by her father to tell the world about her experience,” Steven Schindler said.
Steven Schindler said he feels grateful for his mother’s strength, fortitude, and resilience.
Her legacy lives on in more ways than one.
Steven Schindler’s brother published "Two Who Survived,” a memoir that preserves their mother's story forever.
“What really motivated her was love, what she really lost in her life was love, and what she ultimately created was love,” Steven Schindler said.
Rose Schindler is survived by her four children and two great-grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, the family is asking for donations in Rose's name to Generation E.
