Lea Rosh

Infobox journalist


name = Lea Rosh
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birthname = Edith Renate Ursula Rosh
birth_date = October 1 1936
birth_place = Berlin
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occupation = journalist
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gender = female
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URL = http://www.lea-rosh.de/

Lea Rosh (pronounced|ʁoːs; born Edith Renate Ursula Rosh on October 1 1936 in Berlincite web |url=http://www.lea-rosh.de/index.php?status=101#lea%20rosh |title=Lea Rosh CV |accessdate=2007-12-29 |last= |first= |coauthors= |date= |work= |publisher= ] [cite web |url=http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/archiv/.bin/dump.fcgi/2002/0529/lokales/0053/index.html |title=Lea Rosh verliert vor Gericht gegen einen Buchverlag |accessdate=2007-12-29 |author=Deckwerth, Sabine |date=2002-05-29 |language=German |work=Berliner Zeitung online |publisher=: "In ihrer Geburtsurkunde steht Edith Renate Ursula Rosh."] ) is a German television journalist, publicist, and activist for the installation of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin. The American author Ruth Gay describes her as "a TV journalist that has adopted a misleading Jewish-sounding name although she is not a Jew at all". [cite web |url=http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/archiv/.bin/dump.fcgi/2002/0529/lokales/0053/index.html |title=Lea Rosh verliert vor Gericht gegen einen Buchverlag |accessdate=2007-12-29 |author=Deckwerth, Sabine |date=2002-05-29 |language=German |work=Berliner Zeitung online |publisher= - "Autoren großer Zeitungen warfen ihr vor, sich demonstrativ einen jüdisch klingenden Namen gewählt zu haben, obwohl sie gar keine Jüdin sei. Sie wurde 1936 in einer protestantischen Familie geboren."]

Background

Her father was killed in the winter of 1944 as a Wehrmacht soldier in Poland. At age 18 she left the Lutheran Church in Germany and began to use the first name "Lea" instead of her given name of Edith, describing the name Edith, which is of Old English origin, as "horribly German" [http://www.sz-magazin.de/texte/anzeigen/300/3/1] .

Rosh formerly worked at various German radio and television services, including the Sender Freies Berlin and the ZDF. From 1991 to 1997 she was, as a political gesture, appointed director of the Hannover studio of the Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), being the first woman to hold a comparable post in the history of German radio. A remarkable action at the NDR was to ban the lyrics of the "Niedersachsenlied", the anthem of Lower Saxony composed in the 1920s, from NDR radio broadcast, as she perceived them as fascist.

Motivated by historian Eberhard Jäckel, she was one of the primary forces who lobbied from 1988 onwards for over 17 years for the construction of the widely controversialcite web |url=http://www.welt.de/print-welt/article358515/Lea_Rosh_ist_am_Ziel_ihrer_langen_Belehrungsmission.html |title=Lea Rosh ist am Ziel ihrer langen Belehrungsmission |accessdate=2008-01-01 |author=Lau, Miriam |date=2004-12-15 |language=German |work=Die Welt |publisher=] Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, completed in May 2005. She has been chairman of the „Förderkreis zur Errichtung eines Denkmals für die ermordeten Juden Europas“ ("Society for the Promotion of Raising a Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe") since 1995, and vice chairman of the board of trustees of the „Stiftung Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas“ ("Foundation for the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe") since 1999.

Since 2007 Lea Rosh holds a post as a lecturer at the "UMC Potsdam-University of Management and Communication (FH)" for the subjects moderation and media training.

In 1990, Rosh and Eberhard Jäckel were awarded the Geschwister-Scholl-Preis for their joint work, "Der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland". [ [http://www.buchhandel-bayern.de/geschwister-scholl-preis/1990.shtml Geschwister-Scholl-Preis » Preisträger 1990] ] In 2006, Rosh was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz. [ [http://www.berlin.de/rbmskzl/rathausaktuell/archiv/2006/09/13/47408/ 01.01.2001 Bundesverdienstkreuz: Wowereit ehrte Lea Rosh] ]

Criticism

An allegation that she had changed her last name to sound more Jewish and that her original name was "Rohs", which was reprinted by several reputable newspapers, had to be withdrawn. [cite web |url=http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/archiv/.bin/dump.fcgi/2005/0507/politik/0008/ |title=Am Ziel. 60 Jahre Kriegsende |accessdate=2007-12-29 |author=Götz, Thomas |date=2005-05-07 |language=German|work=Berliner Zeitung online |publisher=: "Die Behauptung, sie habe auch noch ihren Nachnamen von Rohs in das jüdisch klingende Rosh ändern lassen, musste der Spiegel nach einem Verleumdungsprozess zurücknehmen."] [Citation | publication-date =28 September 1998 | date =28 September 1998 | year =1998 | title = Gegendarstellung | journal = Der Spiegel | volume = 52 | issue = 40 | page = 226: "Frau Rosh [...] hat jetzt Dokumente vorgelegt, aus denen sich ergibt, daß ihr Geburtsname Edith 'Rosh' lautet."] [cite web |url=http://www.taz.de/index.php?id=archivseite&dig=2004/02/18/a0205 |title=Ein großer Baum fängt viel Wind |accessdate=2007-12-29 |author=Stiefel, Susanne |date=2004-02-18 |language=German|work=die tageszeitung |publisher=: "Lea Rosh, sprich "Ros", geht inzwischen gegen jeden gerichtlich vor, der behauptet, sie habe ihren Nachnamen hebräisiert. Sie schleppt Stammbaum und Geburtsurkunde an, um mit dem Gerücht aufzuräumen, dass ihr Vater Rohs hieß und bei ihrer Geburt zwei Buchstaben vertauscht wurden."] Nevertheless, she has been criticized for changing her first name to a Jewish-sounding name, despite not being Jewish. [cite web |url=http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/archiv/.bin/dump.fcgi/2002/0529/lokales/0053/index.html |title=Lea Rosh verliert vor Gericht gegen einen Buchverlag |accessdate=2007-12-29 |author=Deckwerth, Sabine |date=2002-05-29 |language=German |work=Berliner Zeitung online |publisher= - "Autoren großer Zeitungen warfen ihr vor, sich demonstrativ einen jüdisch klingenden Namen gewählt zu haben, obwohl sie gar keine Jüdin sei. Sie wurde 1936 in einer protestantischen Familie geboren."] . She sued the publishing company Verlag C. H. Beck for publishing a book of the Jewish American author Ruth Gay, which described Lea Rosh as "a TV journalist that has adopted a misleading Jewish-sounding name although she is not a Jew at all" ("eine Fernseh-Journalistin, die sich einen trügerisch jüdisch klingenden Namen zugelegt hat, obwohl sie gar keine Jüdin ist."). [cite web |url=http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/archiv/.bin/dump.fcgi/2002/0529/lokales/0053/index.html |title=Lea Rosh verliert vor Gericht gegen einen Buchverlag |accessdate=2007-12-29 |author=Deckwerth, Sabine |date=2002-05-29 |language=German |work=Berliner Zeitung online |publisher=] However, she lost the case against the author mentioning her name change.

Rosh's activities are deeply controversial both in the Jewish and non-Jewish communities. When at the monument's dedication on May 10 2005, Rosh held up a molar which she had retrieved from Belzec concentration camp in 1988, promising to place the tooth in a column at the memorial, [cite web |url=http://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/;art270,2035023 |title=Empörung über Lea Rosh |accessdate=2008-01-01 |author=Keller, Claudia |date=2005-05-12 |language=German|work=Der Tagesspiegel |publisher=] the act outraged several prominent German Jewish leaders, notably Paul Spiegel, the then chairman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, who described the idea as "irreverent". [cite web |url=http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,355578,00.html |title="Roshs Vorhaben ist äußerst pietätlos." Interview with Paul Spiegel|accessdate=2008-01-01 |author=Heinemann, Ronald |date=2005-05-11 |language=German|work=Der Spiegel |publisher=] Rosh withdrew her plan and returned the molar to Belzec concentration camp shortly after. [cite web |url=http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,356057,00.html |title=Mahnmal-Streit: Lea Rosh gibt Backenzahn an Belzec zurück |accessdate=2008-01-01 |author= |date=2005-05-13 |language=German|work=Der Spiegel |publisher=] [cite web |url=http://www.n-ost.de/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=413&Itemid=106 |title=Lea Rosh vergräbt Backenzahn in Belzec |accessdate=2008-01-01 |author=Ziesing, Hartmut |date=2005-07-20 |language=German|work= |publisher=Netzwerk für Osteuropa-Berichterstattung e.V.]

She has been accused of exploiting the Jews and the Holocaust to promote herself. Author Henryk M. Broder claimed that everyone involved knew that the Holocaust Mahnmal she lobbied for did not serve any other purpose than to promote the person Lea Rosh. [http://www.henryk-broder.de/html/tb_rosh.html - "Das Holocaust-Mahnmal, um das Lea Rosh seit inzwischen 12 Jahren kämpft, wird gebaut werden, obwohl alle Beteiligten wissen, dass es keinem anderen Zweck dient, als dem Ehrgeiz seiner Promoter ein Denkmal zu setzen."] She has also used slogans like "There was no Holocaust" to collect money, for which she was widely criticized. [ [http://www.henryk-broder.de/html/tb_rosh.html Henryk M. Broders Homepage - Die Privatisierung des Holocaust ] ]

She was elected the "most embarrassing Berliner" ("peinlichste Berlinerin") by the readers of Berlin magazine "Tip" in 2003.

References

External links

* [http://www.holocaust-mahnmal.de/en Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe]
* [http://www.holocaust-denkmal-berlin.de/index.php Förderkreis Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas e.V.]