Gregg County Holocaust Survivor Dies

LONGVIEW – East Texas Holocaust survivor Coenraad “Coen” Rood has died. Rood, who was 94, died Saturday. A memorial service will be at 2:00 Monday afternoon at the chapel of Longview’s Rader Funeral Home. Burial will follow in Memory Park Cemetery. His family is asking that contributions be made in Rood’s memory to the Dallas Holocaust Museum or the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

According to the Rader Funeral Home obituary, Rood was born in 1917 and grew up in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The overarching experience of Rood’s life was the 37 months he spent imprisoned in 11 concentration camps. He vowed with his fellow prisoners that if any of them survived, they would bear witness to the atrocities for the rest of their lives, which he did by speaking to schools, churches, civic organizations and anyone else with an interest. His memoirs have been published in German and Dutch. His story is also available at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, through the University of Southern California’s Shoah Foundation Institute, and Yale University Library’s Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies.