Oscar Rosowsky was born into a Jewish Belarusian family in Berlin. The family emigrated to France in 1933. Rosowsky graduated from high school in Nice in 1941. He was unable to study medicine as planned, however, due to the persecution of Jews beginning there.
His father was arrested and deported at the end of August 1942. Oscar Rosowsky himself had to perform forced labor in a market garden. After several weeks, he decided to flee to Switzerland, and forged his first document to do so. He made it across the frontier but was sent back by Swiss border guards. Rosowsky returned to Nice and fled to Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. Numerous persecuted Jews had already found shelter in the remote region around Le Chambon. Rosowsky obtained accommodation in a pension under the assumed name of Jean-Claude Plunne. Emma and Henri Héritier later took him in on their farm.
Together with Samy Charles, Louis de Juge, Gaby Barraud, and Roger Klimowitzky, he set up a forgery workshop. Up to the end of the war, they produced thousands of documents for Jews and other people in hiding.
After his liberation, Oscar Rosowsky studied medicine and became a doctor.
Stamps traced by Oscar Rosowsky and used for reproduction via gelatin printing, Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, around 1943. Source: Musée de la Résistance nationale à Champigny-sur-Marne (AAMRN), Fonds Oscar Rosowsky
Forged identity card for Oscar Rosowsky, made by Rosowsky by altering an identity card issued to his friend Jean-Claude Pluntz, May 1943. Source: Musée de la Résistance nationale à Champigny-sur-Marne (AAMRN), Fonds Oscar Rosowsky
Oscar Rosowsky with Emma Héritier and her daughter Éva in front of the farmhouse in La Fayolle, Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, 1944. Source: Musée de la Résistance nationale à Champigny-sur-Marne (AAMRN), Fonds Oscar Rosowsky
Oscar Rosowsky (right) and Samy Charles on the Héritiers’ farm in La Fayolle, Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, 1944. Source: Musée de la Résistance nationale à Champigny-sur-Marne (AAMRN), Fonds Oscar Rosowsky
