American Joint Distribution Committee booklet on Hanukkah used by a Polish Jewish teenager

Judith Weinstein (born Yehudit Wagner, b. 1932) was born in Rudnik, Poland (now Rudnik nad Sanem) to Chana (née Rheingold, 1903-1993) and Pinchos Wagner (1893-1979). Chana was born in Wieliczka, Poland to Necha (née Koenigsberger) and Isak Rheingold. Pinchos was born in Rudnik to Malka (née Kirschenbaum) and Nuchim Wagner. He had two brothers, Michael and Avraham, and one sister, Kayla. Pinchos, along with his two brothers, owned a wicker factory, Wagner Brothers Baskets Manufacturers & Exporters, and exported their products overseas. Avraham immigrated to the United States and worked to distribute their products in America. Judith had one younger sister, Charlotta (1936-?).

On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, starting World War II. On September 17, the Soviet Union joined the invasion from the east, and the two countries divided Poland along the Bug River. In October, the Germans expelled all the Jews from Rudnik, including the extended Wagner family. They were sent over the San River to Ulanow in Soviet-occupied territory. The Wagners then went to Winicki near Lvov (now Lviv, Ukraine). They stayed in Winicki for a few months, but they refused to take Soviet citizenship, so in spring 1940, the Soviets exiled the family to Siberia. Judith and her family were forced to live in Siberia for 14 to 16 months before being allowed to go south to the Ural Mountains and then to Kazakhstan. Judith’s aunt, Kayla, with her husband, was the only one of her father’s siblings to remain in Poland, and they were murdered in the Holocaust.

In early 1946, the Wagners were repatriated as Polish citizens and taken to Bielawa in Lower Silesia. They lived there for approximately six months before leaving Poland with the help of the Bricha, an underground immigration movement that helped Jews from Eastern Europe move to Palestine and later Israel. The Wagners travelled with the Bricha through Czechoslovakia to Austria. In Austria, they stayed in a displaced persons (DP) camp in Vienna for six months, and then moved to the Wels DP camp. Judith worked as a teacher’s aide at the Wels camp and attended nursing school. Eventually, Judith’s uncle Avraham was able to provide the family with affidavits, and they arrived in New York City on June 2, 1951, aboard the USNS General Stewart. In 1955, Judith married Barry Shillet (1921-1975), a fellow survivor. Barry was from Działoszyn, Poland, and had been imprisoned at Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland and Dachau concentration camp in Germany. Judith and Barry lived in New York and had two children together. After Barry passed away in 1975, Judith married Eddie Weinstein (1924-2010) in 1985. Eddie was a Holocaust survivor from Losice, Poland, who had escaped from Treblinka II killing center in German-occupied Poland as a teenager.

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) is the world’s leading Jewish humanitarian assistance organization. The JDC was founded in 1914 to assist Jewish persons in Palestine during World War I. The Holocaust and World War II caused the JDC to ramp up its relief efforts. With the end of the war in 1945, Jewish survivors were placed into hastily created displaced persons camps throughout Europe. Along with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), the JDC helped administer these camps and provide supplies. The JDC has aided millions of Jews in more than 85 countries.