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Jutta Rose died at her home in Bay Point, Sag Harbor, on November 28 of natural causes. She was 95 and a Holocaust survivor.
Survivors said her last five years were fraught with pain and suffering from falls and scoliosis. Her spouse of 33 years, Romany Kramoris, cared for her at home, along with East End Hospice the last 10 days.
Ms. Rose was born in Hannover, Germany, on January 17, 1918. Her Jewish father, Fritz Nathan Rose, and brothers owned a firm that sold heavy equipment for farming. Her Christian mother, Franziska Meyer Rose, assumed the position of wife and mistress of a large household with servants and nannies. Her mother was trained as a mezzo soprano, fine pianist and lieder singer.
In 1924, when she was 6, Ms. Rose’s childhood education began at the exclusive Victoria Lyceum. By 1934, when she was 16, anti-Jewish sentiments were growing in all levels of German society, and Ms. Rose was thrown out of school by Nazi law as a “mischling 1st grade,” half-Jew (Jewish father, Christian mother), and out of her sports club tennis, skiing and mountain climbing. She and other Jewish children were abused and mistreated, with many sent out on the “Kindertransport.”
During her school years, a non-Jewish, blond, blue-eyed friend, Hilde Domeyer, and her family protected Jutta Rose in school confrontations, eventually hiding her in the Alps in their small mountain summer house.
In 1938, she met Henri Nannen, a student, and they became engaged. He was a staunch anti-Nazi activist. After Ms. Rose’s testimony in his favor as an anti-Nazi, he founded the world famous magazine Der Stern.
On November 9, 1938, Kristallnacht (“the Night of Broken Glass”), the Nazis came to the Rose residence, dragged her bleeding father down the steps and put him into a truck with his brothers, going to the Buchenwald concentration camp. Franziska Rose demanded that the Nazis leave, as she was a Christian. Their home was later confiscated, and Jutta Rose’s status kept her out of conservatories and universities. Mrs. Rose was put into forced labor in Hannover.
Her mother’s status as a Christian enabled them to flee to Bremen, where her mother’s sister Darce Meyer helped them and where Jutta Rose continued private singing studies in 1940. They then fled to Berlin, where Jutta Rose studied with Professor Emge at the Musiche Hochschule, and then were put into forced labor at Telefunken, Berlin, getting pennies as pay, not enough to survive on, from the German government.
In 1942, they escaped Berlin and went to a friend’s ski and summer hut in the Alps. In 1944 Telefunken was bombed, and all transportation—railroads, buses and roadways—were a disaster, preventing access to water and food as well as escape for Jutta Rose and other refugees. Word got out that a law was in preparation to mandate that all 1st grade mischlings be put away in concentration camps. Hilde Domeyer again rescued Ms. Rose, while her mother was pulled to Chicago by family friends.
In 1945, while she was hiding in the Alps, the brutal, rapist French brigades burst in. Finally came the American troops, and the war ended. Ms. Rose returned to Bremen State Opera, performing as a Wagner Valkyrie. She met the renowned teacher and singer Kathleen Kersting and they joined forces and created the American Opera Co., rooted in Milan. For seven years they toured throughout Italy, Spain, Germany and Austria. Ms. Rose’s most famous role was Salome in Richard Strauss’s opera “Salome.” She also sang major roles in “Manon,” “Tosca,” “Carmen,” “Aida,” “Ariadne,” “Zauberflote,” “Rusticana,” “The Medium,” “Merry Widow” and many others.
In 1957 the Kersting/Rose studio set out for New York City (Yonkers), with the help of pianist Mary Van Ness, then Carnegie Hall. After Ms. Kersting’s death in 1960, Ms. Rose taught at the Manhattan School of Music, where she made the most dramatic change in her teaching style, from opera to the American Broadway theater. She specialized in the Broadway repertoire and songs through her last days of teaching.
Ms. Rose participated in a three-hour interview for Steven Spielberg’s Shoah project. In their 33 years together, she and Ms. Kramoris enjoyed traveling to Germany, Austria, Mexico, Egypt and various parts of America, including Milwaukee—Ms. Kramoris’s hometown—and Boston. They attended theater and music festivities, their favorite being the summer festivals in Salzburg, Mozart’s birthplace.
She kept lifelong friendships with first students including Nathan Lane, Frank Langella and Maria Tucci from early days, as well as Linda Borman and many members of the Choral Society of the Hamptons. Three of her local students won first prize over three consecutive years in the singing competition at Mirra Banks and Richard Brockman’s annual Playhouse Project: Louis Murillo, Elizabeth Oldak and Kyra Christopher.
In 1980, Ms. Rose bought her dream: a little white house by the sea, reminiscent of Italy, in Bay Point—The Muschelhaus (Seashell House). Participation in the Bay Point Property Association, long walks and swims at Long Beach in Sag Harbor, which she adored, kept her busy with her partner, Romany Kramoris, a status that became official eight years ago when they married. She is survived by cousins Donald Rose of Long Island and David Rose of Tennessee.
on Dec 20, 2013