JUSTUS ROSENBERG, 1921–2021

SCHOLAR, WITNESS TO HISTORY, LOVER OF LEARNING

JUSTUS ROSENBERG, professor emeritus of languages and literature and visiting professor of literature, died October 30, 2021. He was 100. Rosenberg was born to a Jewish family in Danzig (now Gdan ´ sk, Poland) in 1921. At 16, he was sent by his parents to Paris to finish his education away from the growing antiSemitism in his hometown. Three years later, France fell to the Germans and Rosenberg fled south. By chance he met Varian Fry, an American journalist who helped hundreds of men and women— including artists and intellectuals such as Hannah Arendt, Marc Chagall, André Breton, Max Ernst, Alma Mahler, and Franz Werfel—escape the Nazis. Rosenberg became a valuable member of Fry’s clandestine team as a scout, spy, and courier of important documents. After Fry was expelled from France, Rosenberg went on to serve with the French Resistance and then the United States Army. He received a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart, and in 2017 the French ambassador to the United States made Rosenberg a Commandeur in the Légion d’Honneur, among France’s highest decorations, for his heroism during World War II.

Justus Rosenberg in Marseille, France in 1940, when he was with Varian Fry’s Emergency Rescue Committee. Rosenberg delivered messages and forged documents to refugees and scouted out safe passage, especially the overland route through Spain. Photo courtesy of the Justus Rosenberg family.

At the end of the war, Rosenberg was able to emigrate to America, where he finished his PhD and began his career as a teacher, first at Swarthmore, and then, in 1962, at Bard. He taught literature and many languages, including French, German, Russian, Yiddish, and, from time to time, even Polish. “Students who were fortunate enough to take his classes had the rare opportunity to study with a scholar who was also a witness to history,” says President Leon Botstein. “The Nazi genocide of European Jewry has receded from memory and become a more distant object of history. Bard students, however, had the opportunity to be in the presence of an individual who could testify to what happened. The denial of the truth of the persecution and annihilation of European Jewry has, astonishingly, persisted. Justus Rosenberg survived and witnessed the unimaginable. Yet he tirelessly and eloquently demonstrated reasons for hope. Despite suffering and loss, Justus sustained an unrelenting commitment to literature, the arts, philosophy, the traditions of science, and the making of art; for him they revealed the possibilities of human renewal shared by all, and transcended the differences among us. For Justus, learning and study were instruments of redemption, remembrance, and reconciliation. He possessed a magnetic capacity to inspire the love of learning.”

Rosenberg retired formally in 1992, but accepted a postretirement appointment to rejoin the faculty offered to him by Stuart Levine, who was then dean of the College. Rosenberg was a loyal friend to Peter Sourian, who died in 2017, and an avid player of tennis, particularly with Jean French, professor of art history, who died in 2019. In recent decades, Rosenberg was very active promoting causes dedicated to tolerance and the fight against prejudice and hate. In 2020, he published The Art of Resistance: My Four Years in the French Underground: A Memoir.

“His death, after a long and productive life, is a call to honor his long service—his contributions as a teacher and writer—by resolving to remember, more than ever before, the events of history he was part of and the courage and commitments to freedom, tolerance, justice, learning, and respect for all human life he displayed,” says Botstein. “All of us at Bard owe him a debt of gratitude for his many years of teaching, his friendship, and the eloquent writings he penned.”

Rosenberg is survived by his wife, Karin. Contributions in his memory can be made to the Justus Rosenberg Memorial Fund at Bard College, whose objective is to create an endowed chair in comparative literature in his name.

Justus Rosenberg received the Bardian Award from Bard College in 2014.

Top photo: The French ambassador to the United States, Gerard Araud, awards the French Legion of Honor medal to Justus Rosenberg at the French Consulate on March 30, 2017, in New York City. Photo by Kena Betancur/ AFP/Getty Images