Jacob G Rosenberg born 1922 in Lodz, Poland and grew up as the youngest member of a working-class family. After the Germans occupied Poland, he was confined with his parents, two sisters, and their little girls in the Lodz Ghetto until they were sent to Auschwitz. All the members of his family (except himself and his sister who committed suicide a few days later) were gassed on the day of their arrival. He remained in Auschwitz for about two months and spend the rest of the war in various other concentration camps.

In May 1945 he was liberated and moved to a Displaced Persons camp in Italy where he met and married Esther Laufer who was a survivor of eight camps. He and his wife emigrated to Australia in 1948. Their only child was born in Melbourne. His writing was awarded the 2006 New South Wales Premiers Award for non-fiction and the 2007 National Biography Award.

Rosenberg died in 2008 at 86 years of age in Melbourne.