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Herbert Rosenkranz

Herbert Rosenkranz was a Jewish historian born in Vienna who worked as an archivist at Yad Vashem and taught Jewish history in Israel.

1924 to 2003Archival work at Yad VashemResearch on Nazi crimesTeaching Jewish history

Born: 7 July 1924, Vienna
Died: 5 September 2003, Jerusalem
Occupation: historian, university teacher
Education: University of Vienna

Herbert Rosenkranz was born in 1924 in Vienna

Herbert Rosenkranz was born in Vienna in 1924 and grew up in the Brigittenau district. His Jewish parents, Michael and Mircia, and his grandparents had come from Eastern Europe. After the Anschluss, the family moved to Riga, Latvia.

After the Soviet occupation of Latvia, he was held in several Soviet prison camps from 1941 to 1947. From 1947 to 1953 he studied history and English at the University of Vienna. He wrote his thesis on Khazar Judaism.

He then emigrated to Israel and taught at high schools until 1955. That year he began working as an archivist at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, and later headed its department for investigating Nazi crimes. He was an assistant professor of Jewish history at Tel Aviv University in 1960/61 and lectured at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1968 to 1977.

He supported the Holocaust Memorial Service of young Austrians in Israel and sought dialogue with German clergy. In the 1980s he was a guest lecturer at the Academy for Jewish Studies in Heidelberg and at Austrian universities. He died in 2003.