Alfred and Annalee Roegtten collection

Alfred Roettgen was born on March 13, 1916, in Essen, Germany, into a mixed family. His mother was gentile, and his father was Jewish. The family was not very religious, but Alfred did have a Bar Mitzvah. In 1933, the family received antisemitism in their community and moved to Amsterdam, Netherlands. He worked for the Committee of Jewish Refugees as a runner delivering letters. In 1942, he married his wife, Annalee. Nazi Germany occupied the Netherlands in 1940; Alfred had to wear the yellow Jewish star since he had Jewish grandparents on his father's side. He worked for the Jewish Council for Amsterdam, handing immigration for Jews of Foreign Nationality. This position allowed him to move freely during the occupation, and it spared him and his wife many times from being deported. However, his wife was sent to Westerbork transit camp in September 1944. During her imprisonment, he successfully changed in identification to a full gentile by providing false documentation of a gentile father

In 1947, Alfred and Annalee emigrated to Brooklyn, New York, but shortly moved to Los Angeles, California. He worked as a sausage maker in a packing house for two years and then opened his own small German sausage factory. When he retired, he and Annalee moved to Palm Springs.



Annalee Priester/Anneliese Priester was born in Berlin, Germany, on January 7, 1923. She was 9-years old when her family moved to Amsterdam. Annalee was 18-years old when Nazi Germany occupied the Netherlands. In 1942, two weeks after her brother was sent to Mauthausen concentration camp, she married her husband, Alfred Roegtten. She worked with him at the Jewish Council for Amsterdam as a telephone operator. A year later, she was separated from her husband and sent to Westerbork transit camp. Her husband had documentation that he was a full gentile, and this prolonged Annalee from being deported. Unfortunately, her parents were transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. On April 12, 1945, the Canadian forces liberated Westerbork transit camp, and Annalee reunited with her husband. In 1947, they emigrated to the United States and settled in California.