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‘I won’: 96-year-old Auschwitz survivor makes aliyah surrounded by four generations of her family

Charlotte Roth officially became an Israeli citizen at a ceremony in Tel Aviv

February 24, 2026 13:30
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Charlotte Roth, pictured with some of her family, on the day she officially became an Israeli citizen (Picture: Nefesh b'Nefesh)
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Charlotte Roth, a 96-year-old Holocaust survivor, has made aliyah, joining four generations of her family in the coastal city of Netanya. 

According to Aish, the mother-of-four said "I won” as she received her Israeli ID card surrounded by loved ones at a ceremony at the Nefesh B’Nefesh office in Tel Aviv last Wednesday. 

Roth, whose birth name was Ilanka Shvartz, was born into a large, close-knit family in Czechoslovakia in 1920.

In 1944, at the age of 14, her life was upended when her family was forced into a ghetto. Just weeks later, they were deported to Auschwitz, where Roth was selected for forced labour and separated from her mother and siblings, whom she never saw again.

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