My Voice: Rosel Siev

The My Voice Project is a unique initiative by The Fed, Manchester's leading social care charity serving the Jewish community. The My Voice Project empowers Holocaust survivors and refugees from Nazi persecution who settled in the UK to share their entire life stories including experiences before, during and after the war years. This project involves a bespoke methodological approach, producing books that preserve their unique voices. The My Voice Project ensures firsthand accounts are remembered and valued for future generations, highlighting the critical role of individual perspectives in ensuring a deeper historical understanding.

Rosel Siev was born in Aurich, north west Germany in June 1921. Growing up in a tight-knit religious Jewish family, she had a happy childhood - one of five children.

Later moving to Fulda and Frankfurt, she experienced the November Pogroms/Kristallnacht, when she remembers walking in the street and seeing Jewish property on fire, being destroyed. Close non-Jewish friends turned against her and her family, which impacted her greatly. Her parents thought it would be safer for her to come to live in the UK, so she was separated from her parents and siblings.

Rosel arrived in Cardiff in 1938 when she was 17 but relocated to Manchester soon after, where she studied nursing at Crumpsall Hospital, later becoming a staff nurse.

Rosel married Arthur in 1947 and had two daughters. Sadly, Arthur died suddenly in 1969. Asher, who had also been widowed, was later introduced to Rosel and they married in 1971. Rosel relocated to Dublin and had many grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Rosel's book is part of the My Voice book collection.