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As the film ended Judy Weissenberg Cohen stood up and said simply, “I was there”, referring to Auschwitz-
Birkenau on August 2 nd 1944 when the so-called Gypsy camp was liquidated, and 2,879 Roma and Sinti
women, men and children were taken to the gas chambers. It was the most memorable moment of an
intense week of lectures, workshop and debates. I had often discussed the events of August 1944 with
historians and colleagues in the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum. There are no Roma survivors who were
in Auschwitz-Birkenau at that time. So it is only the memories of “bystanders”, other prisoners near the
barracks where the Roma were held, that can testify to the events of that night. I was hearing one of these
bystanders speak. 4
Judy arrived in Auschwitz-Birkenau early July 1944 with part of her family from Debrecen in Hungary. She
told the meeting and expanded to me later: “After the usual selections and separation from our parents and
other relatives, my three sisters and I were settled down in the camp called B/III or, as the inmates called
it Mexico. As we learned eventually, our parents and their first grandchild with his mother were murdered
immediately in the gas chambers. Through rumours we became aware that the camp next to ours was the
Zigeunerfamilienlager or Gypsy Family Camp. On August 2nd, we, in camp B/III, became aware of very loud
noises emanating from the Zigeunerlager. Yelling and desperate screaming of adults and terrified children’s
howling, and SS soldiers threateningly barking orders. This continued for hours into the night. The mixture of
noises indicated that the Roma were resisting vigorously their upcoming evacuation from the camp and their
suspected, subsequent murder by gassing. We just listened in silent fear, impotent to do anything helpful,
terribly sorry for what was happening next door and terrified that our camp would be next to be emptied. I
know I will never forget that heart-rending death cry of thousands of Roma as they resisted. They were all
murdered, as we learned later. This was one of my unforgettable episodes in Birkenau.”
39 HOLOCAUST EDUCATION IN PEDAGOGY, HISTORY, AND PRACTICE
Judy and her sister Eva survived. Their sisters, Klára and Elizabeth, starved to death in the Stutthof
concentration camp. Judy and Eva emigrated to Canada in 1948. It took decades before Judy began
talking about her experiences in Nazi captivity. “My public presentations always include testifying of my
audio-witnessing the murder of thousands of Romani people in Birkenau.” 5
4
I visited Judy Cohen the following year during the Canadian IHRA chairmanship in 2013. The following recollections were sent by
email to the author, August 2015.
5
Judy Cohen supports and sponsors events on the genocide of the Roma such as this programme during Holocaust Education Week,
in memory of her parents, siblings and relatives, victims of the Holocaust, from Debrecen, Hungary.