'Absolute resilience' - At 96, Holocaust survivor Charlotte Roth makes aliyah, fulfilling a lifelong dream

Charlotte Roth, a 96-year-old survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp, made aliyah (immigrated) to Israel on Feb. 18, becoming one of the oldest immigrants to fulfill the Zionist dream of returning to the Jewish homeland.

Roth, who endured the horrors of the Nazi death camp as a young woman, arrived in Israel to cheers and tears from five generations of family members and officials who gathered to welcome her. Little did she know that war with Iran was only a couple of weeks away.

Last Monday was Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel, and Roth had the opportunity to speak at an event hosted by Nefesh B'Nefesh, the organization that assisted her with the Aliyah process, to share her story with those in attendance.

ALL ISRAEL NEWS correspondent Kayla Sprague had the opportunity to sit down with Roth and her family that day, and the significance of the moment was special and impactful.

Michelle, Roth's granddaughter-in-law, was among those present – a third-generation American-born Jewish woman who came into Roth’s family through marriage but has never felt anything less than fully embraced. "Bubbie considers me her granddaughter, and I consider her my grandmother," Michelle said. Together, the family now spans five generations, many of whom have already made their own homes in Israel. "She's really the leader in terms of the spirit of the family," Michelle affirmed. "She has an amazing sense of humor and amazing strength, and she has an emotional IQ higher than anyone I've ever met in my life."

Michelle was just fourteen years old when she first met Roth and began to understand the weight of her story. Hearing first-hand testimony from someone who survived Auschwitz at the age of fourteen herself left a permanent mark. "It's unfathomable what she went through," Michelle said, "and it gave her a strength and a knowledge about the world that we've all just been able to learn from every day."

When Sprague asked Michelle about the rise of antisemitism today and the importance of preserving testimonies like Roth's, her answer was unwavering. "It's critical, and it's critical for so many reasons, because at the end of the day, antisemitism is an old story, and it's taken many shapes and forms," she said. "We were hated for our ethnicity, we were hated for our religion, in Bubbie's case, she was hated for her race, and now we're being hated for our nationalism."

Michelle pointed to Israel's current struggle as a fight not just for the state, but for the very right of the Jewish people to exist. She credited Roth with instilling in her family a clear understanding of what that means. "Something Bubbie has taught us is that the world doesn't discriminate, and they don't care if you're a Jew living in Israel or you're living somewhere else. This is all about being Jewish, this is antisemitism to its core – and as she said over and over again, we have no choice but to fight."

The woman who guided Charlotte through the bureaucratic and emotional journey of becoming an Israeli citizen is Gabi Stempf, an Aliyah advisor at Nefesh B'Nefesh.

Stempf described her role simply as taking Roth from "Hi, I'd like to make Aliyah" all the way to "You are officially Israeli." She said, “That was one of the most special experiences of my life.”

For Stempf, the weight of what she was facilitating was never far from her mind. "I think just being a part, or even just a small part, of such an almost historical moment," she said, when asked what made the experience so meaningful. "She has been through so much, from the camps, having everything taken from her, everything destroyed, to rebuilding her life, getting married, having kids, grandkids, great-grandkids, great-great-grandkids – a lot of whom live here in Israel now. She is the matriarch of five generations."

What seemed to move Stempf most was the simplicity and clarity of Roth’s desire. "This is her next step, and this is what she wants to do. She wants to come home to the Jewish homeland. And I get to facilitate that in some way – and that's kind of surreal." From their very first conversation, Stempf understood her unique position of helping someone with an extraordinary history. "I almost couldn't believe that I got to have the honor of doing that. I was choking up even just talking to her for the first time."

When asked what Stempf had learned from Roth through the process, she replied, "Her absolute resilience. Despite everything, there's nothing you can't do." Her demeanor and disposition seemed to leave the deepest impression. "She's not jaded. She's not angry. She is just happy."

Stempf recalled how, during Roth's remarks, one word kept coming up above all others. "If you heard her speak, you heard her repeat over and over – my family, my family, my family. Her family is her life. And she built that."

For Stempf, that was perhaps the most powerful lesson of all – that a woman who had every reason to be broken had instead chosen, decade after decade, to build. "She wouldn't change anything. So many people are broken for so much less – and she's not broken at all. She is so much more than what she's built."

Charlotte Roth survived Auschwitz, rebuilt her life, raised a family, and watched that family grow across five generations and two continents. And now that she’s home in a country once again fighting for its survival, her presence is not just a homecoming – it is a declaration.