Judith Hemmendinger has passed away. She was an author, social worker, and recipient of the Legion of Honor award. Previously she managed the Jewish Orphanage for Buchenwald Concentration Camp survivors in France. She is the author of The Children of Buchewald: Child Survivors of the Holocaust and Their Post-War Lives and The Children of the Holocaust, both available through Amazon.
"Aunt Yehudit was my mother Shulamit Katz's younger sister. One year separated them, and they were very close. Aunt Yehudit, of blessed memory, and Uncle Claude , who is 102 years old and sadly no longer in good health, immigrated to Israel with the establishment of the state and joined Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu in the Jordan Valley, but due to the death of Claude's father, they had to return to France," recounted her nephew, Rabbi Yoel Katz, in a conversation with Arutz Sheva - Israel National News.
According to him, "They lived in Strasbourg for twenty years and were very active in the Jewish community there, and after the Six-Day War, they returned to Israel and settled in Jerusalem. Aunt, who was a veteran social worker, was appointed as the chief social worker for customs, and dedicatedly cared for employees, focusing on Holocaust survivors among them."
He added and recounted that "After retiring, she took a tour guide course, and for decades served as a tour guide for tourist groups from all over the world, greatly aided by her complete fluency in mother-tongue level German, French, and English, in addition to Hebrew of course. She continued her activity as a tour guide even after the age of ninety, when she passionately taught Judaism and Zionism to the groups she guided. She used to write a weekly letter in French to her family and friends, in which she brilliantly described, in vivid colors, her actions and thoughts, making every seemingly small and insignificant event a fascinating and moving story, an extraordinary talent. She saw everything in a positive light, particularly the development of Jerusalem, which she especially loved."
Rabbi Katz elaborated on her mission to preserve the memory of the Holocaust. "However, her main mission in life was to preserve the memory of the Holocaust – the years during the Holocaust and afterward when, as a teenager and young woman, she successfully cared for children and families from concentration camps, were also in her eyes the most special years of her life, and she wrote and lectured about 'her children', 'the children of Buchenwald', in various forums in Israel and around the world".
"She succeeded, with natural talent and almost without prior training, in turning a group of hurt, bitter, suspicious, and resentful young people into healthy and successful young adults, among them those who achieved great success, thanks in large part to her – for example, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, Rabbi Menashe Klein of blessed memory, Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, and many others. She managed to leave behind five generations that build their lives here in the land of Israel in the spirit of the Torah", concluded Rabbi Katz.
Rabbi Hagai London, head of the Yeshiva of Holon, married to Efrat, her granddaughter, tells Arutz Sheva - Israel National News about a woman full of joy of life and energy until she fell ill. "Every time we talked about Grandma Yehudit we would laugh; she was the embodiment of Proverbs' woman of valor - 'Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the days to come.' It was simply amazing to see a woman who had gone through so much, and in certain ways, her story is the resurgence story of this nation, continued until the last moment to be active and energetic: guiding tours, lively social life, studying and educating all the time, organizing family trips, and much more. She and her generation are, in my opinion, the symbol that the people of Israel overcome everything".
