Hans Rosenthal was born in Berlin in 1903. He worked as an engineer for Osram. After being banned from working in his profession as a Jew, he managed the Jewish Community’s supplies and purchasing department. Hans Rosenthal was a close friend of Inge Deutschkron. For Otto Weidt, Rosenthal was an important and trusted contact within the Jewish Community. He warned Otto Weidt of the large-scale raid by the name of “Operation Factory,” in which more than 6,000 Jews were arrested in February and March of 1943 and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp.
Hans Rosenthal had connections to the Community for Peace and Reconstruction resistance group and to the printing press owner Theodor Görner. In June 1943 his deportation was deferred, along with that of his mother Käthe Rosenthal. They were both imprisoned, initially in the Große Hamburger Straße assembly camp, and then in the Schulstraße assembly camp. Hans Rosenthal had become indispensable for the Gestapo, as a purchaser. He survived in Berlin and emigrated to the United States after the war.
