In Debrecen, Hungary, Judy grows up in a warm and lively family, but when the Nazis invade in 1944, she is crowded into a ghetto, her life now shaped by fear and hopelessness. When the cattle cars take Judy and her family to Auschwitz-Birkenau, she truly leaves her precious childhood behind as she scrambles to survive in the shadow of the gas chambers, one brutal day at a time. Judy survives by clinging to her sisters, to friends, and to fleeting life-affirming moments, and once she creates a new life for herself in Canada, she makes it her mission to give a voice both to women who were murdered in the Holocaust and to those who survived.

Judy Weissenberg Cohen was born in Debrecen, Hungary, in 1928. She is an active speaker and Holocaust and human rights educator, and in 2001 she founded the website “Women and the Holocaust,” which collects testimony, literature and scholarly material exploring the specific gender-based experiences of women in the Holocaust. Judy Cohen lives in Toronto.

Judy Cohen's profile page