UROP in History: The Rosenstrasse Protests, 1943

The mission of the Rosenstrasse Civil Courage Foundation is to commemorate, encourage, and educate civil courage-- concrete actions in opposition to injustice and human rights violations. The Foundation seeks to defend the values of a pluralistic society. The Foundation takes its name from the Rosenstrasse protest in central Berlin in early 1943, in which non-Jewish women married to Jewish men defied Hitler’s regime to protest the imprisonment of their husbands, leading to the men’s release. The Foundation is dedicated to the development of knowledge about this and other acts of women-led defiance, as well as acts of civil courage more generally.

The RCCF was established as a non-profit organization by Dr. Nathan Stoltzfus, emeritus professor of History at FSU, and others in 2018. Liam Wirsansky has been its director of research and development since 2021. In that capacity, he supervises the UROP students as well as regular student interns, and coordinates with the Rosenstrasse RSO. Wirsansky has a master’s degree in library science and participated in UROP when he was an undergrad at FSU.

Over the last few years, the RCCF has hosted a number of UROP students. There are several groups within the RCCF UROP project: maintaining the website, social media, and fundraising; writing biographies; maintaining Wikipedia pages; and doing genealogy research. Students who apply to the project can choose which group they would like to work in. This year there were three: Lilly, a sophomore political science major. Lilly has been drawn to World War II history ever since reading "The Book Thief" in middle school. She has been fascinated by stories of resistance. Jaylen is a pre-med student who wants to also do research outside the STEM fields. Learning about the Holocaust was always interesting to him. And Gavin, a freshman political science major, got drawn to history because of his dad who was a History teacher. His UROP colloquium leader introduced him to the Rosenstrasse project, and he found his niche.

How did you find out about UROP?

Gavin: Participating in UROP was part of my scholarship requirement. So, I did not really have a choice. But looking back now, I cannot imagine what I would have done without it. I am super happy to have met all these people and made all the connections that I did.

Lilly: I found out about it through email. I usually skim over all the messages regarding internships and other opportunities, but this one caught my eye. I decided there and then to apply for UROP. One of my friends did it the year before and really liked it. That solidified my decision to go through with the process.

Jaylen: I also got an email because I am a freshman, and I thought that it would be a good way to get involved.

What specifically is your project about?

Lilly: We had the option of writing biographies for the RCCF website on specific protestors. I compiled entries on two women. There was very little information available on the first woman I researched, but I struck gold with the second one, Marie Lowenstein. I discovered that the University of Denver held the papers of her and her family. I researched her life from birth to death, key events in her story like participating in the Rosenstrasse protests to get her husband released. Because I found so much information on Lowenstein, my project focused just on her. I was lucky that there were also photographs among the family papers. That allowed me to write a lengthy entry for the RCCF website.

Jaylen: I too researched and wrote a biography. But I did not find much beyond records documenting birth and marriage. However, then I moved on to look at what the lives of the protestors were like after World War II. I tried to find out whether they or their children had continued to live in Berlin or moved somewhere else, whether they had gone to college, had married etc. I used information from the person I had researched and then included other people listed on the RCCF website. What I struggled with most was telling a story based on the information I found.

Gavin: My experience combines that of Jaylen and Lilly: in the beginning, I could not find much information besides birth and marriage records. But then I found records for Rudolph Lansky. He had a very compelling life story. Lansky was released from the Rossenstrasse camp, but after WW II ended, he was taken by the Soviets and put in one of their labor camps and kept there for five years. I was able to follow his and his wife’s paper trail to multiple German archives and museums. Each discovery led to the next. That allowed me to put together a comprehensive biography for the website. My UROP colloquium leader helped me with translating documents from German.

What was the most challenging part of the UROP experience?

Gavin: For me, the hardest part was getting started. I did research into different people connected to the Rossenstrasse protests, but found only one or two pieces of information on them and then hit a brick wall. It took a while until I came across a couple of people for whom I found more material. And then I wanted to keep going to piece their stories together. I worked on a dozen people, but found the most substantive documentation for three. 

Lilly: I agree with Gavin, there were a lot of roadblocks that stopped me from telling more life stories successfully. I really wanted to – but then there were only one or two items of information that I could find, and I had to start working on another person.

I usually started looking at Ancestry.com to find the basic information of birth, marriage, death. But many times, all I could find was a record of their birth, and then I had to move to another person.

Jaylin: Yes, that was my experience too. It was not an easy job. That is why I asked broader questions about what happened to the people after the war and used the biographies that had already been written to answer that question. I never really found a person that had a lot of documents related to them.

What was the favorite part of the project?

Jaylin: I most enjoyed learning about the Rosenstrasse protests, because I had never heard about it before. Reading all the personal testimonies was super fascinating to me.

Lilly: For me, the favorite part was how it humanized the protesters. When I first learned about the event, it was just this list of people that were involved. But as I go to learn more about them, and especially as I worked on Marie Lowenstein and I got to see her family history, her family tree, all the people who died, it made history more relatable to me.

Gavin: I'd say my favorite part of the project was the adventure it took me on. For the person I worked on, Rudolph, I kept finding really interesting information, even links to sources that even those running the project had not seen before. So, I had a long meeting with Dr. Stoltzfus about the type of information I uncovered, which also provided information on other participants of the protests unrelated to the man I was working on. Following Rudolph’s life was an adventure that I really enjoyed.

What advice would you give to students who are maybe thinking about participating in UROP?

Jaylin: Do it, it’s a great opportunity. But also, be prepared to spend some time on the project. Especially making the poster. That was more of a challenge for me.

Lilly: Absolutely do it, it is a great way to expand your interests, to see new things, and to experience a different career path from the one you might be thinking about. It also gives you more of a real world experience, as it means you have responsibilities outside of school and your friend group. It is a big learning curve, even making the posters and presenting. UROP is a great way to grow academically and professionally.

Gavin: I agree, do it. But make sure you take it seriously. I did not at first and I now regret that. Not only because once I did, I saw the dividends that paid, but also because I could have accomplished more had I worked conscientiously from the beginning. At first, I just saw the whole research project as an obligation, where I had to meet certain targets, research so many people, write so many biographies. And I went through the motion; doing what I needed to do.  But by the end, I actually wanted to research the life story of a person, I wanted to follow up on the sources, I wanted to write their biography.

Lilly: The Rosenstrasse Foundation has a very important mission; it is so important for untold stories to be made available to the public. The UROP program was amazing, but the foundation was amazing too.

Gavin: Yes, I am super grateful for the opportunity to have worked with the RCCF. Not just because of the research I did but also because of the people I got to meet, like Liam, Dr. Stoltzfus, and Sarah Brophy, who have come to play a role in my academic journey.