Sonia Kranzel

My GG when she was a young woman

When my GG (great grandmother) was a young girl her parents left Russia with her siblings. They took her with them. Unfortunately on their way out someone checked her and she was sick. She was only a baby then. So she lived with her grandmother. Every day she'd go get two heavy buckets of water and the mean kids would throw rocks and sticks in them and she would have to get more. Then one day the soldiers came and invaded her house. All her and her grandmother had was her grandfather's gold pocket watch so that's what the Natzi soldiers took. A couple years after, when she was only six years old, my GG's grandmother died. She lived in an orphanage and was there for the Communist Revolution. When a bad man took over Russia my GG's Christian friends said it would be better to go to America so she did! She left when she was 17yrs.

The boat to Ellis Island (where they go to get to America) was cold. A nice woman gave my GG her coat. She was very grateful and promised to give it back when she got to America even though the women said it was not necessary. When she passed through Ellis Island and met up with her family she had many jobs, like reading to the blind and other mitzvot (good deeds) jobs. Though I'm not sure if she ever got to return the coat to the woman.

My GG died this summer of 2013 she was 103yrs. old. As long as I live my GG will always have a special place in my heart!

GG older with her son