At 106, She’s One of the Oldest Holocaust Survivors on Record

Risa Igelfeld (nee Relles) was born November 1, 1917 in Vienna, Austria. When Risa was still an infant, her mother died from the Spanish Flu in 1918. Her father remarried a woman who had a son.

“She was very mean to me. When I first began my menstrual cycle, I confided in her about it. She slapped me and said I was a liar.”

From a young age, Risa was drawn to singing and performances. She lived near the Opera House and spent all her pocket money to go to the shows.

“Two things stood out to me when the Nazis took over. They smashed all the windows of Jewish stores and grabbed the men to take them to concentration camps. The other is when I was approached in the park by several Nazi soldiers.”

Risa was a teenager walking down the street, dressed in her Sunday best. She was breathtaking in her beautiful red and white dress with coordinating red and white shoes. She passed by the local park when several Nazi soldiers stopped her.

“Are you Jewish?” they growled.

“Yes, I am,” she responded with confidence.

“You are coming with us to wash the Nazi’s headquarters.”

One of the SS soldiers took her aside and said, “They aren’t really going to take you to wash the headquarters. You know what they will do to you? They are going to tie you to a table and rape you, one after another. But you can get out of it if you make a date with me tonight. Be at this park at 8:00 PM. But let me warn you, if you don’t show up, I’ll bang on your door and I’ll kidnap you.”

(Photo credit: Lynn Abesera Photography)

She agreed to meet him, but didn’t show up. Risa told her sister and the housekeeper the whole story, and wanted to run away.

Later that night, the Nazi soldier came banging on the door.

“Open up!” he shouted.

The housekeeper answered and said, “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself for making a date with a Jewish girl?”

“He took off like lightning and was never seen again,” Risa explained to me in Aish.com interview. “If anyone would have found out that he was interested in a Jewish girl, he would have been killed.”

Risa went to college in Vienna where she could choose to learn Latin or French and English. Since Risa had no intention of becoming a doctor and wouldn’t need Latin, she chose to study French and English.

She didn’t know it at the time, but this decision would eventually save her life.

Risa began studying English in the university. As soon as the Nazis came, her professor fled for England.

He later inquired about Risa and asked what had happened to her. He had saved her a visa and sent for her to come to England in 1938. She was possibly his only Jewish student, and he believed she was a decent person worthy of his help.

She escaped to England when she was 21 years old, and her professor helped to find her a job as a housekeeper. The family she was assigned to had two children.

Risa and her daughter-in-law (Photo credit: Lynn Abesera Photography)

“Right away, I loved the children and began to take care of them. I bathed them, took them for walks, and brushed their teeth. I became their nanny and someone else was hired for the dirty work. They employed me for ten years. They were not an antisemitic family. They accepted me.”

During her time nannying, Risa became a popular performer and developed a wonderful reputation as a singer.

“I was very celebrated, and people loved what I did. I would walk into a room and they would applaud wildly because they had heard of me.”

Risa performed in 17 languages, all throughout England and the U.S.

Meanwhile, Risa’s father and step-mother also survived the war.

“My step-mother went to Berlin, to the headquarters of the Nazis, with a lot of money and she said, ‘Here! Make my husband come home.’ The Nazi put the money in his pocket and said, ‘Go home. Your husband will be coming tomorrow, but you better leave right away or else we will deport him again.’”

Once reunited, they didn’t know where to escape to. They hired a boat to Cyprus, but Cyprus would not let them in. Wherever they stopped, no country would let them enter. “They ended up in the Indian Ocean on a little island that held a large prison. They took some of the prisoners out of one cell and let my father stay there. My step-mother was in a dormitory with ten other women and caught Malaria. My parents couldn’t see each other at all.”

With students from Yavneh (Photo credit: Lynn Abesera Photography)

They both survived, but Risa only saw her father many years later.

“My father eventually landed in America. I went to visit him, but when he saw me, he stared at me like I was a ghost. He thought his late wife was coming back from the other world because I looked so much like my mother. I was in my late twenties.”

A New Life

In 1948, when Risa was 31, she married Gershon Igelfeld and together they had two children, David and Ruthie. She met Gershon in the most unexpected way.

“My husband’s sister was my good friend,” Risa explained. One rainy Friday night, Risa rode her bicycle to her friend’s house. The friend said, “I’m so glad you’re here. I’m expecting my brother for the weekend. He’s always so bored when he comes.”

Risa didn’t realize she already had a guest and said, “Oh, well if you have company, I’ll go home.” But her friend begged her to stay, and she agreed. “That was my future husband, but I didn’t know it.”

At first, Risa was not impressed because his English was very poor and she didn’t like the way he spoke. But the following Sunday, he unexpectedly showed up at Risa’s door. “I want to take you out.”

They went for a bicycle ride into Windsor. “We saw the royal family coming out of the chapel and that was quite exciting. Then we sat down for a picnic that he had prepared and he unpacked a beautiful lunch with all the trimmings. I was very impressed.”

She and Gershon had a lot in common. Both of their fathers were entrepreneurs. They soon married and later moved to Los Angeles. They were married for 52 years.

“A few years before he passed, my husband had several strokes and his mind was gone.”

Gershon’s friend, Ralph, would visit often, and Gershon loved it when he came. “Ralph fell in love with me right away. One time, I walked into the kitchen and he followed me and said, ‘I love you. You make me feel so young. But I’m not a marriage-wrecker. I will not say anything or do anything that’s not right.’

With the author, Sarah Pachter (Photo credit: Lynn Abesera Photography)

“Truth be told, I fell in love with him, too. My husband’s brain was not functioning. I kept him at home and cared for him. When he passed away in 2000, Ralph took over at once. Ralph was also from Vienna, and lived only five blocks from where I grew up, but we didn’t know each other at the time. We learned that we have a lot more in common than just being from Vienna. We loved to sing together and laugh. We traveled the world and created beautiful memoirs. We planned to visit Paris together, but sadly it didn’t happen because he fell down the stairs and died.”

The two of them shared companionship and a love of their own for 14 years until Ralph passed away in 2014. Six months afterwards, Risa’s daughter died from cancer. In 2015, her son tragically passed away as well.

Although Risa lost a lot of family in a short period of time, she has still kept a very positive outlook on life.

“I can be sad and miserable, but instead I choose to count my blessings.”

Starting the Day the Right Way

Even at 106, Risa begins her morning routine with half an hour of daily exercise. She works her arms, legs, and core and lifts weights daily. She also rides her stationary bike daily and imagines traveling to different places while peddling. She also plays the piano daily for an hour.

Risa has developed the attitude to accept whatever happens in life and always look for the blessing. “I had bad things happen to me. But I chose to go on living and find the sunny side of life.”

Risa had two main professions throughout her life, but kept her priorities at the forefront. “I was a very popular kindergarten teacher at the JCC and also a popular entertainer, but I always had a hot meal ready for my family.”

Family always comes first for Risa. She taught at the Westside JCC for 40 years. When she turned 100, the JCC celebrated with a birthday party.

Former Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer was there. In his speech, he said, “Risa taught my two sons. She didn’t teach them algebra – she taught them to like themselves.”

These days, everyone calls her Grandma Risa or Risa “Amazing” Igelfeld, sharing her warmth with her students and the community at large.

(Photo credit: Lynn Abesera Photography)

Risa is deeply concerned about the rise of antisemitism taking place in the world today. She believes that the best approach to combat this is to be an example to the world. “All we can do is to prove that we are decent people and that we lead a clean life. It is that which brings success to the Jews, not the ridiculous conspiracies about Jewish people.”

Final Message

Risa’s lasting message to the world is one of positivity.

“I want people to think only positively. When you think positively, there can’t also be hatred or judgment simultaneously.”

Risa believes that her positive thinking has contributed to her long life.

“I lost my two children in my lifetime. I asked myself, can I change it? No. What can I do? I can count my blessings. So I got busy counting my blessings.”

Just last week, Risa was released from the hospital for treatment but has kept herself in a positive state. She was singing Hebrew songs as she walked out the door. Risa has always had a song on her lips, which has kept her mind and heart happy.

Risa asked to close with the following blessing: “My blessing for you all is to try and think positive. Try to let your conscience be your guide, love with integrity, and in that way you will lead a happy life.”