Rosa Haus, was born Rosa Harry in Poznan, Poland in 1916. An only child, Rosa was living with her parents when they were forcibly removed from their home and sent to concentration camps by the Nazis.
Rosa spent five years in camps, with most of the time at the infamous Auschwitz where she was sent to gas chambers three times but escaped each time. She credits speaking German with her survival since she was able to plead for her life and was allowed to return to work. Rosa’s parents were both murdered in the camps.
After liberation, Rosa met Yosel Krause, who was also the sole survivor of his entire family, including his first wife and two children who were killed in concentration camps. Rosa and Yosel married and gave birth to a daughter, Masha Gitel, in Germany. In 1948 they moved to Jaffa, Israel where they had their second child, a son named Aaron. In 1956 they relocated to Bogotá, Colombia where Yosel died in 1960. Shortly after, Rosa and her two children immigrated to New York, where she met her second husband and then later moved to Florida.
Rosa and her daughter Masha moved to El Paso in June of 2004, when Masha’s son, Dr. Marc Ellman, relocated here to open an ophthalmology practice. Rosa died December 2004, at the age of 88.