[Annotator’s Note: There is a buzzing in the background throughout this clip. The interviewee is already speaking when the clip starts.] Justus Rosenberg was a victim of laws put in place by the Vichy government [Annotator’s Note: Vichy France, or the Vichy Regime, in place from 10 July 1940 to 9 August 1944, was the French State headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II which collaborated with Nazi Germany]. He was picked up at five in the morning one day and put into a detention camp. These camps served as a waiting place until there were enough people [Annotator’s Note: mostly Jews] to be shipped by train to Auschwitz [Annotator's Note: Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp complex in German occupied Oswiecim, Poland]. Rosenberg did not know this at the time. After a run-in with a guard who was friendly to him, Rosenberg became more daring. He asked the guard what would happen to the people in the camp, and he was told they would be sent to a labor camp to work in Poland. The next morning, Rosenberg knew he needed to get out of there. He went to the infirmary. Ironically, every extermination camp also had an infirmary. Rosenberg had learned from Varian Fry [Annotator’s Note: Varian Mackey Fry ran a rescue network in Vichy France helping thousands of refugees to escape Nazi Germany and the Holocaust] committee that being declared very ill might help to avoid being sent to the extermination camps. By chance, he ran into a family friend who was a student of medicine, and she helped him come up with symptoms to claim he had. He had her run to the infirmary claiming that he was having a medical problem due to peritonitis [Annotator’s Note: inflammation of the peritoneum due to a bacterial or fungal infection]. He woke up on a surgery table despite not actually being ill.

Justus Rosenberg [Annotator’s Note: interned by the Vichy Regime, faked an illness to get out of the detention center, having his appendix removed despite not actually being ill] was eventually able to escape from the hospital and joined the French underground army. They helped him escape the hospital, and gave him an assumed French name [Annotator’s Note: Jean-Paul Guiton]. He was trained in intelligence, in part because of his linguistic skills, and because he looked much younger than his actual age, very angelic and Aryan [Annotator’s Note: in the hierarchy of Nazi racism, Aryans were considered the superior race]. The Resistance obtained false identification papers for Rosenberg, and he became a traveling salesman as a cover. He had been trained to recognize German insignia to determine units and ranks, whether there were regular army or SS [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel; German paramilitary organization]. This first task lasted several months. He could not keep all of the information he gleaned written in a notebook, but had to remember it. The Resistance tried to avoid all contact with each other, so Rosenberg would drop intelligence reports for someone to pick up later. He remained in the Resistance until the Americans, British, and Canadians invaded Europe on 6 June 1944 [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. Rosenberg was in Marseille [Annotator’s Note: Marseille, France] at the time. Around 15 July [Annotator’s Note: 15 July 1944] the Germans withdrew their army from the south of France where the Allies were also invading. Rosenberg’s task was to try to delay them as much as possible by building roadblocks. Rosenberg was in command of about 25 men waiting for Germans to approach and engage them when three Americans came down the road. They were part of Taskforce Butler [Annotator’s Note: the Allied mechanized component of Operation Dragoon, the invasion of Southern France on 15 August 1944]. They were members of the 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion in which one of the men, Lieutenant Rogers [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify], was commander of the reconnaissance company. He asked Rosenberg to go meet a Colonel in a nearby town, which he did. When he entered the small town where the Colonel was staying, the main square was packed with American Sherman tanks [Annotator's Note: M4 Sherman medium tank], and his fears were over. The Colonel invited Rosenberg to serve with the 636th as an interpreter, which he did from August 1944 until the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945].

[Annotator’s Note: There is a buzzing in the background throughout this clip.] Justus Rosenberg [Annotator’s Note: joined the French Resistance after escaping internment by the Vichy Regime, asked to work with the reconnaissance company of the 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion while in the south of France in August 1944] rode in the lead reconnaissance vehicle because he knew the area. He would ask locals when Germans came through and how many there were. The GIs [Annotator's Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier] were sick of eating nothing but K rations [Annotator's Note: individual daily combat food ration consisting of three boxed meals]. They contained cheese, Spam [Annotator's Note: a brand of canned cooked pork made by Hormel Foods Corporation], chocolate, toilet paper, cigarettes, etc. Rosenberg thought it was pretty good. He would take K rations with him in his jeep to trade with locals for milk and eggs. While driving off, they hit a German Teller mine [Annotator’s Note: an anti-tank mine]. One of the radiomen Rosenberg traveled with happened to be sitting in the front seat where Rosenberg always sat, and was killed. The driver lost his leg. Rosenberg received a small head wound and thought he was going to die. He had a concussion and had three broken ribs. An ambulance quickly arrived. Rosenberg received citations for that day. He stayed with the 636th until late December [Annotator’s Note: December 1944]. The war had slowed down at this time because the Germans had launched a counter-offensive at Bastogne [Annotator’s Note: the siege of Bastogne, Belgium; 20 to 27 December 1944; was part of the larger Battle of the Bulge, or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. Rosenberg went back to Paris to continue his studies at the Sorbonne and was granted an American visa for services rendered to the United States, and immigrated to the United States. [Annotator’s Note: The interview cuts to black for about a minute.]

[Annotator’s Note: There is a buzzing in the background throughout this clip.] Justus Rosenberg [Annotator’s Note: joined the French Resistance after escaping internment by the Vichy Regime, began working as an interpreter for the reconnaissance company of the 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion in the south of France in August 1944] was born in January 1921 in Danzig, called The Free City of Danzig at the time, on the Baltic Sea [Annotator’s Note: a semi-autonomous city-state in existence from 1920 to 1939, now the area of Gdansk, Poland]. The region was in contention between Poland and Germany, so the League of Nations [Annotator's Note: the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace that existed from 10 January 1920 unitl 20 April 1946; predecessor of the United Nations] declared it an independent city that belonged neither to Poland nor Germany. The Germans occupied Danzig beginning in 1939. Rosenberg’s father was an import-export businessman. The population of Danzig was 75 percent German, 20 percent Polish, and the rest were Jews. Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] was elected in 1932, and took power in 1933, with the Weimar Republic [Annotator’s Note: the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, a constitutional federal republic] declared abolished. Rosenberg was a teenager at the time. The best schools in Danzig were German. Rosenberg was soaked in German culture. He could not join the Hitler Youth [Annotator's Note: Hitler Youth, or Hitlerjugend in German, was a youth organization of the Nazi Party for young men] because he was Jewish. In 1934, when he was in high school, some of his classmates showed up in nice uniforms [Annotator’s Note: of the Hitler Youth], which he envied. Some joined because they really believed in it, some joined simply to avoid difficulties. In 1933, people did not realize how quickly the constitution could become perverted. Once Hitler gained absolute power, there was no stopping it.

[Annotator’s Note: There is a buzzing in the background throughout this clip.] People began to leave Danzig [Annotator’s Note: the Free City of Danzig was a semi-autonomous city-state on the Baltic in existence from 1920 to 1939, now the area of Gdansk, Poland] on their own in 1933, able to take their wealth with them. As time progressed, it became more and more difficult to leave. In 1934, Justus Rosenberg was 13 years old and attending the best school in town [Annotator’s Note: a German school]. There was no anti-semitism. Beginning in 1935, Jewish doctors could no longer practice, Jewish lawyers could not represent Germans etc. Their livelihoods were taken away from them. In 1936, the Nuremberg Laws [Annotator's Note: anti-Semitic laws adopted in 1935 by the German Nazi government after it came to power in 1933] were enacted. By the end of 1936, Jews were no longer allowed to attend German schools. Rosenberg’s father had the means to send him elsewhere, but it was not easy. He ended up in Paris, France at the end of 1937. Up until 1939, Paris was as it always was. That changed once the Second World War broke out in 1939 [Annotator’s Note: when Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939]. Rosenberg had a ball in Paris. There were music halls, orchestras, and theaters everywhere. He was immersed in the French culture, and quickly spoke French fluently.

[Annotator’s Note: There is a buzzing in the background throughout this clip.] Justus Rosenberg [Annotator’s Note: a Jewish teenager from Danzig who fled Nazism to study in Paris, France in late 1937] was not in Paris when it was overrun by the Germans. The war [Annotator’s Note: World War 2] started in September 1939. The next six or seven months was what was called a Phoney War. [Annotator’s Note: The Phoney War, Drôle de guerre in French, was the nickname given to the preiod of time beginning with the declaration of war by the United Kingdom and France on Nazi Germany on 3 September 1939 until the German invasion of France on 10 May 1940 during which little combat took place]. Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] invaded Poland [Annotator’s Note: on 1 September 1939] because he considered it part of the German Reich, as the majority of citizens were German. The German generals, not all of whom were Nazis, came up with a new type of warfare known as Blitzkrieg, meaning Lightning War, using certain tactics. Poland was divided between the Soviet Union and Germany. Poland had an agreement with England and France that if Poland was attacked, the other two powers would come to its defense. Yet, when Poland was invaded, England and France sat behind the Maginot Line [Annotator's Note: a series of defensive fortifications roughly paralleling the Franco-German border built by France in the 1930s] and did not do anything. They chose to sacrifice Poland. Germany’s big problem was fighting on two fronts, Eastern and Western.

[Annotator’s Note: There is a buzzing in the background throughout this clip.] Justus Rosenberg [Annotator’s Note: a Jewish teenager from Danzig who fled Nazism to study in Paris, France in late 1937] met Varian Fry [Annotator’s Note: Varian Mackey Fry ran a rescue network in Vichy France helping thousands of refugees to escape Nazi Germany and the Holocaust] when people began fleeing Paris [Annotator’s Note: Paris, France] as the Germans approached. The French Army was defeated and the government collapsed. Pétain [Annotator’s Note: Marshal of France Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Pétain; French Army general and head of Vichy France from 1940 to 1944] signed an armistice with Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] and Germany in 1941. The armistice included a clause called “surrender on demand” meaning that the French government committed itself to surrender on demand any German citizen who may be inimical to German interests, and another clause established a semi-independent France. There would be an area governed by a French government with a new capital in Vichy [Annotator’s Note: Vichy, France; the Vichy Regime was in place from 10 July 1940 to 9 August 1944, and was the French State, headed by Pétain, which collaborated with Nazi Germany]. Vichy began to collaborate more and more with the Germans. Rosenberg was in school until the Germans enter Paris, when he moves to Marseille [Annotator’s Note: Marseille, France, in the south of the country].

[Annotator’s Note: There is a buzzing in the background throughout this clip.] Justus Rosenberg [Annotator’s Note: having arrived in Marseille, France after fleeing Paris, France as the German army approached in 1940] became acquainted with an American girl who introduced him to Varian Fry [Annotator’s Note: Varian Mackey Fry ran a rescue network in Vichy France helping thousands of refugees to escape Nazi Germany and the Holocaust]. He knew nothing about him at the time. The girl became Fry’s secretary. He came to try to help to get American visas to refugees. He had a list of around 200 people including artists and writers. It was not a small endeavor, and he needed a courier. Rosenberg took on that role. He was in touch with his family up until the outbreak of war. There was no postal service after that. Fry was supposed to stay for only on month, but decided to stay much longer on his own. He was sponsored by two wealthy Americans living in Marseille at the time, Mary Jayne Gold [Annotator’s Note: an American heiress who played an important role helping European Jews and intellectuals escape Nazi Germany] and Peggy Guggenheim [Annotator’s Note: an American art collector, bohemian and socialite]. Fry contacted Chagall [Annotator’s Note: Marc Chagall, a well-known Russian-French artist], but he did not want to leave. The American government would easily give visas to people with good reputations that would serve them, such as Thomas Mann [Annotator’s Note: a German writer and Nobel laureate]. The difficulty came in getting an exit visa from the Vichy government. Many had to escape through the mountains to Spain in order to leave. Fry was operating under the guise of a rescue operation that helped provide food etc. which was legal and could operate openly. Fry was kicked out of France after a year. In 1941, the United States still had diplomatic relations with Germany and Vichy France until Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. [Annotator's Note: The interview ends abruptly.]