Mom's Story

Edith Sommerfeld, my mother, was born on June 7th, 1932 in pre-Holocaust Czernowitz, Romania. She was the only child of Mady and Bernat Elefant, who were devoted parents and created a loving, warm family environment for their daughter.

Sadly, her hometown was soon to be devastated by wars. In 1940, at just 8 years old, she witnessed the Russian army parading through the main streets of her beloved city. The Russian soldiers took over many Jewish homes, forcing their occupants into slave labor in Siberia. Edith, experienced the distressing sight of her grandparents being forcibly taken from their apartment by the soldiers and transported in a cattle car to face enslavement, deprivation, and eventual death in the unforgiving -40-degree Siberian plateau.

Less than a year later, in July 1941, the Russian army retreated to evade the advancing Nazi German troops. Many Romanians welcomed the German army as they marched in. For the Jewish community, who had already heard Hitler's speeches on the radio, this day marked the day the Holocaust reach their own towns. Within the first two days of the new Nazi-Romanian regime, soldiers massacred 2000 people in the Jewish quarter where Edith lived. Like all Jewish children, Edith was prohibited from attending school, while adults were forbidden to work. They were all forced to wear the yellow Star of David, a symbol that identified them as Jews.

In 2004, Mom published a book titled "Too Small to Matter," recounting her harrowing journey as a young Jewish girl escaping Nazi German-Romania. Her path to freedom spanned 4 years and traversed 5 countries before reaching the ultimate destination: The Land of Israel.

Even though Mom's book is two decades old, the tragic events of the October 7, 2023 massacre and the present political atmosphere, where antisemitism is sometimes allowed under the guise of free speech, revive the haunting memory of Jewish persecution and resilience