Rosenthal, Robert “Rozie”.

Rosenthal, Robert “Rozie” born 11-06-1917 in Brooklyn, New York, United States.. Robert was a graduate of Brooklyn College and Brooklyn Law School, and had been working at a law firm in Manhattan when the Imperial Japanese Navy  attacked Pearl Harbor. Of the 2,341 service members that died on Dec. 7, 1941, almost half died on the USS Arizona, a total of 1,177.

There were 38 sets of brothers on board USS Arizona, including three sets of three brothers. Of those 79 people, 63 died as a result of the attack. The second largest loss of life was on the USS Oklahoma, with 429 lost. From Dec 1941 through June 1944, Navy personnel recovered the remains of those who perished on Oklahoma. Only 35 men were identified, and nearly 400 unidentified remains were buried as Unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. In 2015, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, through a partnership with the Department of Veterans Affairs, exhumed the unknown remains and began the lengthy identification process. So far, over 300 sailors and Marines from Oklahoma have been identified and returned home.

Hickam Field followed, with a loss of 191 people, including five civilians. The USS West Virginia and the USS California followed, with 106 and 105 lost, respectively. A total of 49 civilians were killed as a result of the December 7 attack, some by the enemy and some by friendly fire.

Robert enlisted in the United States Army on 08-12-1941, and requested to be trained for combat. In August 1943 he joined the 418th Squadron of the 100th Bombardment Group, stationed at Thorpe Abbotts in England, as a pilot and aircraft commander of a B-17 Flying Fortress crew. In March 1944, Rosenthal’s crew, nicknamed “Rosie’s Riveters”, with their B-17F, serial number 42-30758 bearing the same name, completed their 25-mission combat tour and returned to the United States, but Rosenthal extended his tour, eventually flying a total of 52 missions. He later became commanding officer of the 350th and 418th Bombardment Squadrons.

On only his third mission with the 100th Bombardment Group, out of 13 B-17s on an 10-10-1943 mission over Münster, the Royal Flush B-17F (USAAF s/n 42-6087)

  that Rosenthal’s crew was flying that day; was the only plane to return, with two engines dead, the intercom and the oxygen system non-functional, and with a large ragged hole in the right wing.

In September 1944, Rosenthal’s plane was shot down over German-occupied France, and Robert broke his right arm and nose. He was rescued by the Free French and returned to duty as soon as he had healed.

On his next to last mission on 03-02-1945, Rosenthal led a mission to bomb Berlin. Although his bomber [A/C #44 8379] was in flames from a direct hit, he continued to the target to drop his payload; then stayed with the plane until after the rest of the crew had bailed out, just before it exploded at an altitude of only about 1,000 feet (about 300 meters). He was recovered by the Red Army and again returned to duty. This raid killed Roland Freisler,   the notorious “hanging judge” of the Third Reich’s Volksgerichtshof.

On the photo above jurist  Roland Freisler with jurist and politican Dr Otto Georg Thierack.

At Thierack’s instigation, the execution shed at Plötzensee Prison

in Berlin was outfitted with eight iron hooks in December 1942 so that several people could be put to death at once, by hanging (there had already been a guillotine there for quite a while). The mass executions began on 07-09-1943 but due to their rapidity some prisoners were hanged “by mistake”. Thierack dismissed these as errors and demanded that the hangings continue. Thierack was named to continue as Minister of Justice in Hitler’s political testament. He served in the brief Josef Goebbels cabinet but was dismissed on 5 May 1945 by Hitler’s successor, Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz. Donitz  Donitz had three children whom they raised as Protestant, Evangelical Christians, daughter Ursula born, 1917 and sons Klaus born, 1920 and Peter born, 1922.

Both sons were killed during the Second World War. The younger son, Peter, was a watch officer on U 954 and was killed on his first trip, on 19-05-1943, when his boat was sunk in the North Atlantic with all hands. After this loss, the older brother, Klaus, was allowed to leave combat duty and began studying to be a naval doctor. Klaus was killed on 13-05-1944 while taking part in an action against his orders. After Peter’s death Klaus was forbidden to have any combat role and was allowed to leave the military to begin studying to become a naval doctor. He returned to sea and was killed on 13-05-1944, age 24; he had persuaded his friends to let him go on the E-boat S-141 for a raid on HMS Selsey on his 24th birthday.

After the fall of the Third Reich, Thierack was arrested by the Allies and held in a British prisoner of war camp. Like other senior Nazi leaders, he would be brought before the international court in Nuremberg. On 22-11-1946, before the opening of his trial, Thierack committed suicide by poisoning, in Stuckenbrock, on 22-11-1946, age 57. In Adolf Hitler‘s will, Thierack was said to have been named to continue the work of the Nazis after the Führer’s death. Thierack is buried at Allentsteig German War Cemetery Allentsteig, Zwettl Bezirk, Lower Austria, Austria Section : Block 1, Reihe 14, 277-278.

Death and burial ground of Lieutenant Colonel Robert “Rosie” Rosenthal.

After the war, Rosenthal served as an assistant to the U.S. prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials, where he interrogated Hermann Göring

In 2006, Rosenthal was inducted into the Jewish-American Hall of Fame and medals were made depicting Rosenthal and his crew.

Robert Rosenthal died on 20-04-2007, at age 89 in White Plains, New York, “Rosie”is buried at Sharon Gardens Cemetery Valhalla, Westchester County, New York, VS Community Synagogue of Rye Lot 197 Grave 3.

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