Holocaust survivor Erica “Tova” Rosenfeld passed away on January 13, 2022. She was 90. A graveside service was held Jan. 13 at Rose Hill Cemetery, officiated by Mrs. Rosenfeld’s grandson, Rabbi Joshua Rosenfeld.
Mrs. Rosenfeld was born in 1931 in Vienna, Austria. She survived the German annexation of Austria in 1938, though suffered considerable danger in 1944 when she was a refugee in Budapest, Hungary.
“This is not the first time my mother is being buried,” said Meir Rosenfeld, Mrs. Rosenfeld’s son. “In Budapest, the Nazis and Hungarian Arrow Cross fascists lined up students from her class and other classes, and in a drunken stupor began shooting wildly.”
Meir Rosenfeld continued drawing from his mother’s recollection over the years: “My mother quickly realized what was happening, and fell behind someone else, thinking she was dead.”
“Realizing what they (Nazis and Hungarian fascists) had done, they built a pit to bury everyone, including my mother, Meir said. “Her mother was convinced she was still alive. She dug throughout the pile with her hands and pulled her through the bodies of some people who had not been as lucky.”
Many years later, Mrs. Rosenfeld returned to Budapest with her sons and recalled the historical events once again. On that occasion, Meir Rosenfeld remembers with tears welling in his eyes, his mother ended the return to Hungary with this simple declaration:
“I won,” she said.
Mrs. Rosenfeld left Hungary and eventually escaped to Israel, and was recruited to join the Israeli Air Force by her teacher, military leader and politician Moshe Dayan.
It was in Israel, while still in the Israeli Air Force, where Mrs. Rosenfeld met Israel Rosenfeld, himself a survivor in Auschwitz, who emigrated to the US in 1948 under a special Czechoslovakian visa and studied at a yeshiva in Brooklyn.
“They met on a Friday, got engaged the next Monday, and got married six months after that,” said Meir Rosenfeld. After their 1954 wedding in the US, the Rosenfelds were married for 62 years before Israel Rosenfeld’s passing in 2015.
Once the Rosenfelds settled in Denver, they became important members of the community. Rabbi Israel Rosenfeld was a longtime principal at Hillel Academy. Mrs. Rosenfeld was active on many community fronts, and with her military background gave lectures at womens’ programs and held discussions and briefings at the FBI branch in Denver.
Meir noted that his parents were rarely apart.
“There was never a night that they didn’t sing Hatikva to each other before they went to sleep,” said Meir.
However, some of those nights were filled with nightmares.
“It was not uncommon to hear my parents wake up screaming in the middle of the night, from those early memories,” said Meir.
With experience and age comes wisdom and a certain license, according to Meir.
“She had many friends, but you had to be able to weather her caustic sense of humor,” he said. “She had little use for a filter. She told you exactly how she felt, and often, how you felt as well.”
Survivors include sons Meir and David Rosenfeld, and four grandchildren.
Contributions may be made to the Denver Academy of Torah.
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