Anna Rosmus

Political activist and award-winning author of numerous books, including "Against the Stream: Growing Up Where Hitler Used to Live"

The small town of Passau, Germany always claimed it was resistant to the Nazi regime during the 1930’s. And this story was easily accepted until a teenager, Anna Rosmus, decided to write an essay on the history of her town.

Her innocent idea opened a Pandora’s box in Passau. Local officials refused to answer questions about their roles during World War II and important historical records were sealed from Rosmus.

Rosmus dedicated the next four years to uncovering the truth of Passau. And what she found was disturbing: many of the town leaders who were admired as resistance fighters were actually staunch supporters of Hitler and the Nazi party. Additionally, eight concentration camps were built in Passau and surrounding areas.

Rosmus’ diligent research caused a storm of opposition and threats against her life in Passau and she was subsequently shunned. Her first book “Resistance and Persecution in Passau from 1933 to 1939," which documented Passau’s hidden past, won Rosmus Germany's prestigious Geschwister-Scholl Award.

Rosmus continues to dedicate her life to uncovering anti-Semitism and the Nazi past of her hometown in Bavaria and to combating the neo-Nazis and extreme right in Germany. She has also published numerous books such as “Exodus: In the Shadow of Mercy,” which detailed the treatment of Jews in Passau from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present and “Wintergreen: Suppressed Murders” which documents the atrocities in Passau at the end of the war, the murder of 2,000 Soviet prisoners, the forced abortions performed on slave laborers in the area, and the murder of infants of slave laborers in the area. Other books include: “Pocking: End and Renewal,” “Robert Klein, a German Jew Looks Back,” “Against the Stream: Growing Up Where Hitler Used to Live,” “Out of Passau: Leaving a City Hitler Called Home” along with contributions to publications like La Pensée et les Hommes, Holocaust and Genocide Studies,The New York Times, The European and Aufbau. Her new book “Valhalla Finale” is a photo book about the end of WWII.

Rosmus isn’t always the author, she is often the subject. A biography called “Anna Rosmus: The Witch of Passau” was published in 1994 by Hans Dieter Schütt and her life was also used as the basis for the Academy Award nominated 1990 film The Nasty Girl. She is being featured in Helen Whitney’s upcoming PBS special Unforgivable? which explores the question: Is there any act or atrocity committed against another human being that rises to such a level that it cannot be forgiven? Producer Helen Whitney calls Rosmus wonderful and says she presents her ideas “with wit, force and clarity.”

In The Journal of the Historical Society II, Professor Robert E. Herztein called Rosmus’ work “remarkable” and illuminates the distinction between the impersonal historical accounts of World War II and Rosmus’ steadfast examination of real people and their secrets. “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,” Herztein says. 

Rosmus is the winner of numerous awards for her efforts, including the German Galinski Prize, the American Society of Journalists and Authors Conscience-in-Media Award, the Sarnat Prize from the Anti-Defamation League, the coveted Tucholsky death mask and the Holocaust Survivors & Friends’ Holocaust Memorial Award. She was also the recipient of the D.C. Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the American Immigration Law Foundation Immigrant Achievement Award for being 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.” She was recently invited to join the International Council of “Austrian Service Abroad,” representing the United States of America. 

Anna Rosmus represents the legacy of the Holocaust in memory, education and action in the continuing struggle against bigotry and anti-Semitism.