Karl Rosenthal was born in 1889, one of nine children. He studied at the Universities of Berlin and Münster before receiving his doctorate from the University of Cologne. He served as a rabbi in Dortmund, where he met his future wife, Trudie Schuster. They were married shortly before the outbreak of World War I and were on their honeymoon in Norway when Karl was called back to serve in the army. Their first son, Klaus, was born nine months later. Their second son, George, was born in 1920.
In 1924 Karl Rosenthal began working as a rabbi for the Reform congregation in Berlin. Many of his writings criticized the Nazi ideology, and he was arrested several times. On Kristallnacht Rosenthal was arrested and sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. He was released three months later with orders to leave Germany at once and went to England, where he studied in Oxford. The Rosenthals' son Klaus had already immigrated to the United States. Trudie and George left Berlin early in 1939 and settled in Amsterdam. George was arrested by the Gestapo in 1941 and sent to the concentration camp in Mauthausen, Austria, where he perished. Later that year Trudie was arrested as well and was held at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp for three years. She was able to obtain a South American passport and upon her release went to Switzerland and then on to an UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration) camp in Algiers. She remained there until 1945 when she was able to board a ship bound for America. She was finally reunited with Karl and Klaus in Philadelphia on December 31, 1945.
In 1946, Karl received an appointment to the Reform congregation in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He later worked in Springfield, Illinois, and Wilmington, North Carolina, where he died in 1952. Trudie stayed in Wilmington and died there in 1976.
From the guide to the Karl Rosenthal Collection, 1915-1976, bulk 1925-1951, (Leo Baeck Institute)
