[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 40 (Tuesday, March 10, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E320]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    HONORING THE LIFE OF ROSE TOREN

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. TED LIEU

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 10, 2015

  Mr. TED LIEU of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise to celebrate the life 
of Rose Toren--mother, wife, grandmother, successful business woman, 
author, and Holocaust survivor--who passed away on February 2, 2015, at 
the age of 91.
  Rose's favorite saying, ``Never give up,'' which she passed along to 
her family, dictated the way she lived her life. Born into a 
traditional Jewish family in Poland as Rosalia Orenstein, she was the 
sole member of her family to survive the Holocaust.
  On an otherwise ordinary evening in 1939, Nazi soldiers pounded on 
her door and ordered the family of seven to gather in a field. Her 
younger sister, Eda, decided to escape and was never seen again. At her 
father's urging, Rose also ran, never to see her family again.
  With the help of classmate Urszula Grande, Rose obtained forged 
paperwork and assumed the identity of a displaced Christian Pole, 
Kazimiera Lukashuk. She clung to her new identity but was plagued by 
feelings of anger and isolation in denying her Jewish heritage. In a 
moment of despair, she admitted her true identity to someone whom she 
believed was a friend.
  Rose quickly found herself in the walls of Auschwitz, where she was 
spared the gas chamber and worked knitting sweaters. She escaped 
Auschwitz shortly before the end of the war.
  Like many Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, Rose fled Europe to 
Israel, where she met her husband, Jack Toren. The young couple later 
moved to New York, where their daughter Lili was born. When Lili was 9, 
the Toren family moved to Beverly Hills to provide the best life 
possible to their daughter.
  Rose was quick to laugh and lived a life of defiance, thriving and 
bringing joy to countless others, against all odds. She is survived by 
her daughter, Mayor Lili Bosse, her son-in-law, John Bosse, and her 
grandchildren, whom I hope take comfort in the way Rose lived her life 
as a resilient and astounding woman. May her memory be a blessing to us 
all.