In 1993, Judy Weissenberg Cohen was nearing her 65th birthday and mandatory retirement when, during a lunch-break stroll through downtown Toronto, she saw a group of young people clad in black leather marching in a circle and shouting, “White power! White power!”
asserted
group → near → power
A certain fear was automatic, she later wrote in her memoir, like the feeling of her stomach clenching when she witnessed people being selected for death at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
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people → write → Birkenau
“For a terrifying few seconds, the lines were blurred between past and present.
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lines → blur → past
I wondered, was I looking back at history or ahead?”
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I → wonder → history
As she approached the curious audience, she realized she had come face-to-face with members of the Heritage Front, a white supremacist, neo-Nazi organization.
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she → approach → Front
Instead of turning away, Ms. Cohen marched toward the group’s leader, Wolfgang Droege.
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Cohen → turn → leader
When he claimed there had been no Black slavery in the U.S., she assumed the Holocaust would be the next thing he denied.
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he → claim → U.S.
Before he got the chance, Ms. Cohen stepped between him and the crowd and implored those watching not to listen.
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Cohen → get → those
She later humbly joked she was not especially heroic, since four police officers were nearby.
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officers → joke → ?
They only have a permit for 20 minutes.”
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They → have → minutes
“My luck!” Ms. Cohen later wrote.
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Cohen → write → ?
“I caught the 20 minutes that would soon spur me to action.”
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that → catch → action
For the next three decades, she dedicated herself to Holocaust education and public speaking, urging people — particularly students — to recognize the warning signs of hatred and become witnesses to history.
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she → dedicate → history
She also became a leading advocate for raising awareness about women’s experiences during the Holocaust, eventually creating a website devoted to preserving those stories.
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She → become → stories
Ms. Cohen died on Sept. 6 at 97 years old.
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Cohen → die → Sept.
“The memory of the death camps and being victims of the Nazi Holocaust never fades, but I no longer consider myself a victim,” she wrote.
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she → fade → Holocaust
“Instead, through the decades, I became a politically and socially aware activist.
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I → become → decades
I must work relentlessly to ensure that memories like mine will not become the memories of future generations.”
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memories → work → generations
She was born Judy Weissenberg in Debrecen, Hungary, on Sept. 17, 1928, just after Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.
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She → bear → Hashanah
The youngest of seven children, she developed an early dislike of being ordered around — and a willingness to question people in power that never disappeared.
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that → develop → power
“Judy always had a lot to say,” said Liam Romalis, the producer who worked with her on video testimonies and the audiobook of her memoir.
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who → have → memoir
“She was so sharp-witted, and would disagree with you but was still so open to dialogue.”
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She → disagree → dialogue
Mr. Romalis would pick Ms. Cohen up for the 45-minute drive from her Toronto home to the recording studio.
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Romalis → pick → studio
She barely stopped talking the entire way, whether about something she had seen or an article she had read.
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she → stop → something
In 1938, when Judy was 10, news of the war reached her family in Hungary.
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news → reach → Hungary
She wrote that the children absorbed the adults’ grave concerns by osmosis.
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children → write → osmosis
By 1944, Hungarian Jews were forced to wear yellow Stars of David in public.
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Jews → force → public
Judy attached one to her jacket but covered it with the books and notes she held as she travelled to and from local tutoring gigs.
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she → attach → gigs
She called it her “little act of resistance.”
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She → call → resistance
A few months later, Judy and her family were forced into the overcrowded Debrecen ghetto.
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Judy → force → ghetto
It was only a month before they, along with hundreds of others, were packed into cattle cars.
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they → pack → cars
They were only given two pails: one filled with clean water, and one to be used as a toilet.
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They → give → toilet
Three days later, they arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where an estimated 1.1 million people were murdered.
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people → arrive → Birkenau
Men and women were immediately separated.
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Men → separate → ?
It was the last time she saw her father, her mother and her sister-in-law, who was holding her infant son.
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who → see → son
Then the processing began.
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processing → begin → ?
The women’s body hair was shaved, they took a brief shower and were given clothing previously worn by other prisoners.
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they → shave → prisoners
Judy found herself looking at hundreds of now-identical prisoners.
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herself → find → prisoners
After shouting through the crowd to find her sisters, they could barely recognize one another.
uncertain
they → shout → one
“We started to painfully laugh, how drastically we changed within a few hours.”
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we → start → hours
…and 52 more, not listed.
The Aporia
