Cila Rudashevsky photograph collection

Cilia Rudashevsky (born Cilia Jurer, 1934-2012) was the daughter of Avraham Jurer and Rosa Rudashevsky. Her parents, originally from Vilna, moved to the Soviet Union in 1932. They settled in Sverdlovsk in the Urals where Cilia was born on April 10, 1934. Three years later, Avraham was arrested during a Stalinist purge in Sverdlovsk and subsequently executed. Rosa and Cilia continued to live in Sverdlovsk until 1943, when they moved to Dzirzek, a small village in Uzbekistan. They remained there until the end of World War II. In 1945 they returned to Vilna for a brief period before making their way to the American Zone of Germany with the help of the Bricha. Rosa went to live in the Leipheim displaced persons camp, while Cilia settled in the Landsberg camp with other members of the Dror Zionist youth movement. She later joined her mother in Leipheim while awaiting an opportunity to immigrate to Palestine. In 1947 Rosa and Cilia were included among the 4,500 passengers of the illegal immigrant ship, the Exodus 1947. When the ship was intercepted and its passengers sent back to Germany, Rosa and Cilia spent two months in the Poppendorf displaced persons camp. When they were allowed to leave, they went briefly to Emden, before sailing to Israel on board the SS Kedma.