Rose Samms

Ruzena Summerich, later known as Rose Samms, was born in 1926 in Prague, Czechslovakia. Her parents were Malka and Avram Summerich, and she had two brothers, Georg and Simon and three sisters--Rachel, Rivka, and Rina. (Notice her parents had a thing for R?) She lived a relatively happy life, with the occasional anti-Semitism slurs, until Hitler and his stormtroopers marched into Prague in 1936 as a part of the Munich Conference.She was 10 then. Through the dark years, from 10 to 14, things steadily got worse and worse. Finally, she, among with her family, was sent to the stop station before Auschwitz--Terezin. You know it better as Theiseindt, but because Terezin is easier to remember, I'm using that.

In 1943, her family was deported. Her father and siblings were sent first to Auschwitz and Chelmo--the father and brothers to Auschwitz and the sisters to Chelmo. None survived the first selection. Rose, at the age of 14, was shoved onto a cattle car barely large enough to hold 50, but now held over 150, with her mother, Malka. It took 3 days and 3 nights to reach Auschwitz, althrough by car it'd have taken maybe 1 day. Rose and Malka survived the horrendous trip, but many died on the journey.

Upon arrival, Rose lost track of her mother in the huge crowd--another train had arrived from Hungary. A inmate grabbed her arm and told her to lie about her age. She did. And survived the first selection. This also was when she saw the Blue Angel for the first time, a Kindred with a taste for blood and cruelty. The Blue Angel condemned her mother, but no one realized it. Malka had been told that since she was carrying a baby for its exhausted mother, she'd go to the left. The fact that she was carrying a child marked her for automatic death, even through the infant wasn't hers.

Rose discovered the truth later, in the barracks. The women did what they could, but they had to worry about their own survival, and had no time to spare for the sobbing 14 years old girl. She also discovered, through the records, that the Blue Angel had been responsible for sending her kin to the gas chambers.

She survived the war, through many near-misses with death, including a death march, and turned 16 in April 1945, in Bergen-Belsen. She grew stronger and healthier in the hospital where the Americans had placed her. But she didn't forget. How could she? She was Embraced in 1947 by a drunk Gangrel, who thought she was a deer. When he sobered up and realized what he had done, Rose was gone.

Rose, being who she was, rapidly figured out what she was, and decided it wasn't bad being a Kindred--"The world needs a witness who is eternal." She also decided it was better being a Caitliff--that way the Camarilla wouldn't unload responsibilty she didn't want. And as for the Sabbat--she sees them as (excuse me, but this is what she thinks..) assholes who thinks they're evil. She knows evil--she saw it in the Blue Angel, and the Sabbat doesn't cut it.

She fought the Assamites in the Middle East for Israel, and to this day is determined that Israel survive--no matter what anyone wants. Her family never lived to see the Holy Land, and she wants to make sure that an 14 years old girl, somewhere, has some place to go if the world falls in on her, like it did on Rose in 1936.

Why has she come to San Francisco? She's not a tourist--she's hunting. The Blue Angel has been seen, and she wants to kill him--to avenge her family, and thousands of other families....