Anna Rosmus

Anna Rosmus, also known as Anja Rosmus-Wenninger, is a German author and researcher born in 1960 in Passau, Bavaria.

Contents

Early life in Germany

As a 16-year old she started developing an interest in contemporary history, especially that of the Third Reich. The subject was barely mentioned at school. Challenged by her father, a principal, she participated in a nation-wide essay contest that addressed the history of her city during the prewar years. Whereas some prominent residents claimed that the community remain untouched by the war, and others were praising themselves for their alleged political resistance against the dictatorship, Rosmus' efforts were not welcomed by many inhabitants. Nevertheless, at age 20, she started digging into the past. Upon further questioning of some of Passau's elders, Rosmus came across a widespread silence and refusal to provide specific information.

After three years of perseverance and litigation, she was finally granted access to the city administration’s archives. What she found was baffling. Fabled local leaders had not only been compliant, but were active members of the Nazi Party long before the war. Several concentration -, forced labor- and prisoner-of-war concentration camps had been built in and around the city.

In the meantime, Rosmus had written her first book, Resistance and Persecution - The Case of Passau 1933-1939, which was published in 1983. Undeterred by threats, she now wrote Exodus - In the Shadow of Mercy, a book focusing on the plight of Passau's Jews during the twentieth century. Her work continued to cause unprecedented uproar as well as remarkable praise.

The Nasty Girl and major TV productions

Emigration to the United States

In August 1994, after constant harassment and death threats from those in her own community, Rosmus and her daughters moved to the United States. They settled in the Washington, D.C. area. Since her youngest daughter's graduation from high school, Rosmus has lived near Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.

Her research resulted in numerous presentations, including

• Filling in the Void, The Last Phase of Survivor Literature, Ben Gurion University, Beersheva, Israel, 1996

• Pocking’s Buried Secrets, Teaching the Holocaust Conference in Augsburg, Germany, 1997

• Austrian-German Conspiracies at a Centuries-old Bishopric. A look back, 60 Years after the Conquest of Austria, 28th Scholars’ Conference on the Churches and the Holocaust, Seattle, Washington, 1998

• The Passau Theater Scandal, German Studies Association Conference, Salt Lake City, UT, 1998

• European Response to Northern American Memorials, Teaching the Holocaust Conference, Ottawa, Canada, October 1998

• Franz Schrönghamer-Heimdal: The Honorable?, 29th Scholars’ Conference on the Churches and the Holocaust, New York, New York, March 8, 1999;

• The Presence of the Absence, International Holocaust Conference for Eyewitnesses & Descendants, Vienna, Austria, 1999

• The Pre-Nazi Town that Chose a Jewish Sex Symbol: Gender, Anti-Semitism, and Politics in Passau, 1919-1929, German Studies Association Conference, Atlanta, Ga., 1999

• My Jewish Mission. One German Woman’s Search for the Truth, Nuremberg & beyond, Columbia, South Carolina, 1999

• The Future of Germany’s Past, Holocaust Conference, Millersville, Pennsylvania, 2000

• 1919-1929, The Sexual Revolution of the Twentieth Century, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, 2000

• The Truth about Passau, German Studies Association Conference, Houston, Texas, 2000

• The Nasty Girl and its Aftermath, Association of Holocaust Organizations’ Winter Seminar, USHMM, in Washington, D.C., 2001

• From Reality to Fiction, The European Studies Consortium, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 2001

• Growing up where Hitler Lived. The Courage to Speak the Truth, at: Connecting Biography and Research: Personal Revelations of Female Academics who Deal with the Subject of Extreme Violence and Death, Annual Conference of Canadian Universities Laval University, Quebec City, Canada, Congress 2001

• Where Hitler Used to Live: Post-Holocaust Pocking and Passau, Fourth International Biennial Conference. Deterring and Preventing Genocide: Missed Opportunities, Contemporary Issues and Future Possibilities, Association of Genocide Scholars, at the University of Minnesota, 2001

• Rabbi Lazar Salzberg and the Passauer Neue Presse, German Studies Association Conference, Washington, D.C., October 5, 2001

• Murder of the Innocent, Annual meeting of the European History Section of the Southern Historical Association, New Orleans, 2001

• The Oswald Ring. Educators who Demand that Higher Education Must be Avoided, 32nd Scholars’ Conference on the Churches and the Holocaust, Kean University in Newark, New Jersey, 2002

• Diplomacy and Terrorism: The German-Afghani Connection. Closing Luncheon Address, 32nd Scholars’ Conference on the Churches and the Holocaust, Kean University in Newark, N.J., 2002

• Erich Mühsam and the “Godforsaken Border Town of Passau”. An Arrest that Reflected the Past as Much as it was Foreboding the Future, Jewish Culture - Western Civilization - and Beyond, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Va., 2002

• Rudolph Freiherr von Moreau: The Making of a Hero, 33rd Scholars’ Conference on the Churches and the Holocaust, Philadelphia, Pa., 2003

• "Useless Consumers of Food", Sixth Holocaust Studies Conference, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, 2003

• Supplementing the “Aryan” Race, Annual Conference of the Canadian Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences, Winnipeg, Canada, Congress 2004

• Choosing Murder to Reestablish a Glorious Past. From Atta to Arco: Hating Democracy, 34th Scholars’ Conference on the Churches and the Holocaust, Newark, N.J., 2005

• Back to the Home Front, Annual Congress of the Canadian Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada, June 2, 2005

• Turning The Masses into Ethnic Warriors, Redefining The Political Nature of Borderline Identities, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, CASCA Conference, May 12, 2006

• Family Matters: Rape and Incest in SA and SS: Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, York University, Toronto, Canada, June 3, 2006

• Nazi-Era Deployments of Bavarian Folk Tales, CASCA-AES Conference, University of Toronto, Canada, May 10, 2007

• Manifestations of National Identity in “The Nasty Girl”, Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada, 2007

• How to Avoid the Nuremberg Trials in Grand Style, 8th Holocaust Studies Conference, Middle Tennessee State University, Tenn., 2007

• Major General Ernst Nason Harmon: “Certain Jewish Shipments to Bavaria", Third International Multidisciplinary Conference, Imperial War Museum, London, England, January 9, 2009

• The “Angelic” Major General or: Cussing at the Prospect of Combat, Norfolk, Va., September 13, 2009

In 1994, Rosmus began to plan programs for a first tour with survivors and US Veterans of WWII in Germany and Austria. Since then, she has organized several reunions of veterans, survivors and locals in Europe.

Since 2009, Rosmus has been a member of the International Council of the Austrian Service Abroad.

Publications

Honors

See also

External links