Yom ha-Shoah: The Pursuit of Justice, Judy Meisel’s Story

Judy was just twelve years old when the war came to Lithuania in 1941. The Nazis first forced her family to live in the Kovno ghetto and later they deported them to a concentration camp. Judy and her sister Rachel escaped, and through an extraordinary journey that took them across Nazi-occupied Europe, they were liberated in Denmark. Judy’s story of survival is remarkable and dramatic. Like everyone caught in the crosshairs of the Holocaust, she lost family members and witnessed horrific tragedy. When she ultimately settled in Philadelphia after the war she became an educator and activist with a special connection to Germantown Jewish Centre, honoring and remembering those that were not so lucky by ensuring that we can all learn from her story.

Judy’s grandson, Ben Cohen, will discuss his grandmother’s story of survival and his own personal experiences witnessing and following the trials of a former guard from Stutthof concentration camp. His grandmother, Judy Meisel, was a prisoner at the camp as a teenager, and 75 years after her escape was able to identify the former guard to German officials, setting off a chain of events that would alter the relationship between her and her grandson in ways neither of them could have ever imagined.

Ben Cohen is currently working as the Director of Arts, Culture, and Enrichment at the Minnesota JCC. He is a filmmaker and has dedicated several years to documenting and telling the story of his grandmother and their family during and after the Holocaust. He is the creator of judymeisel.com.