Leonid Rozenberg

Prepared by the Witnesses of War team

Leonid Borisovich Rozenberg was born on 3 September 1921 in Iziaslav, Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. After entering the 1st Kyiv Artillery School in 1939, he graduated as a lieutenant and was assigned as a platoon commander to the 20th Artillery Regiment, 17th Rifle Division.

He entered combat near Lida, in present-day Belarus, on 22 June 1941, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union. On 25 June, he suffered a serious leg wound and escaped on horseback. Following hospital treatment, he served in the 900th Artillery Regiment, 339th Rifle Division, from 1941 to 1943. From 1943 to 1945, he worked in the 47th Army’s artillery headquarters, serving as senior assistant to the head of its operations section. His wartime service included fighting in the North Caucasus, the Kursk campaign, the crossing of the Dnieper, and the Vistula–Oder and Berlin offensives.

During a reunion with his father in 1944, Rozenberg learned that his mother, fourteen-year-old brother and seven-year-old sister had been murdered in the Holocaust. He entered Berlin with his unit on 2 May 1945 and visited the Reichstag four days later.

His decorations included the Order of the Red Banner, Order of the Red Star, and medals for the defence of the Caucasus, liberation of Warsaw and capture of Berlin. He immigrated to the United States in 1991, becoming active in veterans’ advocacy in New York.