Henry and Leopold Rosner Character Analysis in Schindler’s List

Brothers Henry and Leo Rosner are a pair of Jewish musicians, Henry on the violin and Leo on the accordion. They are some of the many Jewish people who owe their lives to Oskar Schindler’s rescue efforts. Henry has a wife name Manci and a son named Olek. Though the Płaszów concentration camp leader, Commandant Amon Goeth, is a violent anti-Semite, he frequently calls the Rosner brothers to his villa for parties and seems to enjoy their music. The Rosner brothers’ music seems to have a strange effect on the Nazis—Henry even suggests that their repeated playing of a mournful tune indirectly leads an SS officer to commit suicide. Goeth’s preference for their music is so strong that Henry Rosner has to hide his violin when he travels out of Płaszów to Brinnlitz, so that he will be able to leave. Both Henry and Leo endure heart-wrenching periods of being separated from their families, though in the end they survive. The Rosner brothers represent the complicated relationships Nazis had with certain prisoners, sometimes admiring or favoring them even as they worked them to death.

Henry and Leopold Rosner Character Timeline in Schindler’s List

The timeline below shows where the character Henry and Leopold Rosner appears in Schindler’s List. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

At the villa, Schindler sees the Jewish brothers Henry and Leo Rosner playing music, Henry on the violin and Leo on accordion. Seated at... (full context)

Some Jews, like the musicians the Rosner brothers , move to a Polish village called Tyniec. They continue to play music, and at... (full context)

Henry Rosner the violinist gets a job in a Luftwaffe mess hall, where he meets a... (full context)

Richard eventually offers for Henry’s son, Olek, to stay with his girlfriend. Henry asks if he’s heard about an upcoming... (full context)

...subdued than in previous years, and he doesn’t get arrested this time. At the celebration, Henry Rosner the musician tells Schindler about how they brought their eight-year-old son Olek (who had... (full context)

Many others make it onto the list, often through deals with Goldberg, including the musician Rosner brothers . Goldberg naturally finds a place for himself on the list. Bau, the recently married... (full context)

Even those on the list face difficulties. Henry Rosner lines up with his violin and is pulled aside by an officer who knows... (full context)

...Rosner and Richard Horowitz, are spotted and rounded up. The parents of the children (including Henry Rosner and Dolek Horowitz) are also rounded up, and they’re all taken by train to... (full context)

...same. Olek then shows some potatoes to prove he won’t starve. Their fathers, Dolek and Henry, are away working at the rock quarry—but when Henry Rosner comes back, he shows that... (full context)

...away to Mauthausen, though his son Richard will stay and eventually be found by Russians. Henry Rosner and Olek, meanwhile, survive a perilous seven-day trip to Dauchau where half of the... (full context)