Agathe Ehrenfried

1923 - 2018

Agathe Agi' Ehrenfried November 11, 1923 - March 5, 2018 La Mesa Agathe Ehrenfried, a Holocaust survivor and longtime resident of San Diego and La Mesa, passed away March 5, 2018. Agi had been an active member of Tifereth Israel Synagogue for over 60 years as well as a member of the New Life Club, a Holocaust survivors group, and other organizations. She was 94 years-old and died of complications associated with pneumonia and multiple chronic illnesses. In recent years, Agi, as she was known to her friends, spoke to thousands of high school and college students and others throughout Southern California about her Holocaust experiences. She stressed the importance of tolerance, being an "up-stander" and appreciating and protecting American freedoms and liberties. She also was a successful businesswoman, along with her late husband, Berek, owning several retail businesses in the San Diego area, including the former Menlo Farms Market in Hillcrest, the Kitchen Witch cookware store and cooking school in Encinitas, and two Hallmark stores. Agi was born in Rakosliget, Hungary, near Budapest, on November 11, 1923, to Lajos and Gizele Bakonyi. When the Nazis occupied Hungary in the Spring of 1944, she was deported to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp with her parents. Her parents were murdered at Auschwitz along with her sister, Judit, and her family who had been deported earlier. In addition to Auschwitz, Agi was an inmate at the Birkenau, Plaszow and Muehldorf concentration camps and a slave laborer in an Augsberg, Germany, airplane parts factory. She was liberated by Patton's Army in April 1945 after spending six days without food or water crammed with hundreds of others on a moving freight train. Agi and her husband met and were married later that year in Munich, Germany. They immigrated to the United States with their son in 1949, settling immediately in San Diego. Their daughter was born shortly thereafter. Agi loved San Diego. She loved going to the beach, and even in her later years, she would strap her bike onto the car and ride all around Mission Beach and the bay. She took pride in staying fit and hiked Cowles Mountain into her 80s. She loved to shop and often could be found strolling through local shops and department stores. She was an expert baker and cook who would go to great lengths to search out just the right ingredients. Even in her later years, she enlisted her caregivers as sous chefs, teaching and directing them to prepare delicious Hungarian favorites. Agi is survived by her son, David (Jaimee) of Short Hills, NJ, her daughter, Judi Gottschalk, of San Diego, CA; grandsons, Joshua (Dahila) Ehrenfried, Henry Ehrenfried, Charles Ehrenfried, Joel (Rachel) Gottschalk, Andrew (Allison) Gottschalk and Jeffrey Gottschalk; great-grandchildren, Caleb, Estelle, Julius and Izabella Rose. The family extends special thanks to her devoted caregivers, Dan and Myrasol Nagal and Gigi who ensured that no wind was ever on her back. Donations can be made to the United States Holocaust Museum or Tifereth Israel Synagogue. Services have been held.