Upper West Siders understand better than anyone the hell endured by hostages taken from Israel by Hamas, and they are elated knowing that freedom is near.
Barry Rosen “lived in darkness” for 444 days after being taken by Iranian revolutionaries on November 4, 1979, experiencing new feelings of “hopelessness and helplessness” every day.
After the cease-fire agreement was announced this week, an emotional Rosen, 80, told the Post: “There is nothing more important than for them to go home and be reunited with their loved ones.” .
“I hugged my wife Barbara. It was like I was there with them, and it was an amazing moment to hear their stories.”
Of the approximately 250 hostages abducted in the October 7, 2023 massacre, 98 remain prisoners, including seven Americans. Sunday, when the first release is scheduled, will mark the 471st day in captivity.
About a year after he started working as a spokesperson for the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Rosen discovered that he and 51 other Americans had joined the extremist followers of Khomeini, the U.S.-backed leader who had just overthrown the Shah. They were taken away.
Rosen spent six months in Iran's “worst” prison, with a gun to his head, often tied up, and forbidden to speak for months.
“I too lived in darkness. I spent most of my captivity in a dark, damp room,” he said, sometimes going for days without a single light bulb on, or none at all. , he recalled.
Before the 40th anniversary of his capture in 2019, he told the Post that the low point was being forced to falsely confess that he was a spy. During his first month in captivity, he repeatedly refused, but guards held an automatic rifle to his head and demanded he sign a confession. If he did not do so within 10 seconds, he would be executed on the spot.
“I signed it,” Rosen recalled. “I was distraught. I didn't want to live after that.”
If possible, he tried to remember his old life. Once, when he was allowed out, and because he moved so often that he didn't know where he was, Rosen found a blade of grass, pulled it out of the ground, and immediately put it in his pocket.
The lush memento reminded him of his deceased father. “I thought we should go to a baseball game together.''
On January 20, 1981, President Ronald Reagan's inauguration day, he was able to take a breath for the first time when a guard told him his release was imminent.
“I didn't believe them,” he said. “For a long time, we didn't realize that we were free.”
The timing of Israel's release (on or around Inauguration Day) is one of several similarities. Rosen said Iran's role in both incidents is separate. Iran, Hamas's main financial backer, is a “very sinister scourge,” he said.
For a devoted wife, the plight of Hamas hostages brought a flood of painful memories.
“It all comes back to haunt me,” Barbara Rosen told the Post, noting an eerie parallel between her own situation and that of families struggling today, enduring many failed deals and failed deals. It's heartbreaking.”
“Poor families are on the same roller coaster that we were on,” Barbara said.
The toll it took on families, and in the Rosens' case, their two young children. “It was one false claim after another. It just kept going on and on.”
When the news of his release became reality, Barbara took her 4-year-old son Alexander to reporters in front of her New York City home and triumphantly declared, “Daddy's coming home.”
Rosen, who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after his release, said getting the Israeli hostages the help they need must be a top priority “in order to recover from this deep and horrifying situation.”
“Everyone has a wonderful opportunity to be happy and live a good life. This situation will always haunt them, but they can build a new life,” Rosen said. Ms. Rosen has worked in public relations at various universities and enjoys family time with her two children and three grown grandchildren.
Still, it's impossible to forget, Rosen said.
“Being a hostage is part of my DNA. It's always with me and will be with me for the rest of my life.”
