Rachel Schonfeld and her family

This is a family reunion that took place in March 1946 in Bucharest. Front row, left to right: my maternal grandmother, Rachel Schonfeld [nee Friedman],, and my sister, Mira Cotin [nee Mizrahy]. In the middle row, from left to right, the three women are my mother's sister, Mina Solomon [nee Schonfeld], the niece from my mother's step-brother's side, Renne Wagner [nee Schonfeld], my mother, Henriette Mizrahy [nee Schonfeld]. In the back row, from left to right: Moritz Solomon, next to his wife, Mina Solomon, and my first-degree cousin, Gabriel Segalescu, the son of my mother's sister, Annie Segalescu [nee Schonfeld].

My maternal grandmother was born in 1865, in Bucharest. She witnessed the instauration of the monarchy, she lived under the rule of all the four kings and she even had the 'luck' to catch the beginnings of the 'people's rule.' She died at the age of 89, in 1954. As she departed, she took with her an entire era. 

Aunt Mina was born in Bucharest in 1896. She worked as a clerk until she married Moritz Solomon. He was a self-made man, an oil man who had a small refinery at the entrance of the town of Ploiesti. In particular, my mother and Mina were extremely close and this is how they remained until the end of their lives.

My sister Mira was born in 1923 in Bucharest. She became a respected physician. She was an obstetrician in the first 10-12 years, and then she changed her specialization after she left the country, becoming a good internist. In 1952 she married Dan Cotin, a university assistant at the Faculty of Agronomy. My niece, Dina, was born in 1956. They emigrated to Israel in 1961 together with my parents.

Gabriel Segalescu was born in 1926 in Bucharest, seven weeks after I was born. Gabriel Segalescu left the country in 1961, emigrated to France. When he got the French citizenship, his name became Segard.

My maternal grandfather had two older children from his first marriage: Iosef Schonfeld and Lisa Zilberman [nee Schonfeld]. Renne was the daughter of Iosef Schonfeld who was a hatter and owned a fashion design house in Bucharest, on Lipscani Street. My parents got married on 31st October 1920. The religious ceremony took place in the fashion design shop of Iosef Schonfeld. The blizzard was so strong, that carriages couldn't enter Lipscani Street.

Photos from this interviewee