Mixed media painting of Jewish children behind a ghetto fence, painted by a Polish Jewish artist

Judith Evan Goldstein (b. Judith Shapiro, 1932) was born in Vilna, Poland (now Vilnius, Lithuania), to Chaim (Hayim) and Yetta (Yentl or Yenta) Golomb Shapiro. Judith had one older brother, Meir (b. 1926) and Yetta’s sister, Frieda, lived with the family. Yetta was a seamstress who designed and sold dresses from home and made the children’s clothes. Chaim was a mechanic for Olejarnia Kurlandzka and later took a job as a designer in an oil factory in Lida, Poland. He was also a handyman who crafted toys and trinkets for his children. The family lived in a nice apartment with a terrace and would often take walks around the city. Vilna had a large Jewish population and was a center of Jewish culture. Chaim was a secular Jew with socialist leanings, who, on occasion, would break kosher, while Yetta, was more observant. Judith’s mother nicknamed her Muśkele and the family spoke mostly Yiddish and some Polish at home. Judith attended public school and Meir went to Ezra, a private Hebrew school, and later gymnasium.

In September 1939, in accordance with the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, Germany and the Soviet Union invaded and partitioned Poland. Vilna was in the Soviet zone, but was exchanged with Lithuania in October for acceptance of Soviet troops within their borders. The border change placed Lida, where Chaim worked, in the Soviet zone and the family had to move there so he could continue working. In June 1940, the Soviet Union fully annexed Lithuania. Judith and her family then moved back to Vilna and Chaim got a job as an engineer at a beer factory. On June 22, 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union and occupied Vilna on June 24.

The authorities immediately declared that Jews could not use the sidewalks, their valuables were taken, and Jewish businesses and synagogues were vandalized. All Jews had to wear the Star of David, and Jewish men were taken for forced labor by Khapunes (snatchers). In September 1941, Jews were forced to move into two ghettos established in the poorest section of the city. Judith’s family could only bring a few things and was forced to live in a small apartment with several other families. Chaim received a job outside the ghetto, repairing abandoned Soviet military equipment and was able to get Meir a job painting machines. Yetta was forced to work as a seamstress for the Germans. Every month, the authorities selected thousands of Jews, mostly women and children, for aktions. They were taken to Ponary (Paneriai) forest outside the city and executed. With the exception of Aunt Frieda, all of Judith’s extended family who lived in and around the city were killed in this way. Judith’s parents’ skilled work allowed the family and Frieda, who still lived with them, to avoid selection for the aktions.

In September 1943, the ghetto was liquidated and Chaim was taken away. The rest of Judith’s family was able to hide, but were later caught. The women were separated from the men and the young, elderly, and mothers with newborns were selected for execution. To make Judith look taller and older, Yetta fluffed up her hair and changed her birth year to 1930. Judith, Yetta and Frieda were then forced inside a box-car and deported to Kaiserwald concentration camp in German-occupied Latvia. Upon arrival their heads were shaved, their possessions were confiscated, their clothes were taken, and they were issued striped uniforms with numbers. They were housed in louse-ridden barracks and had to sleep four to a bunk. In the mornings the prisoners were forced outside for hours-long roll calls. Yetta and Frieda had to shovel coal, and Judith was a forced laborer for Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG), connecting wires to receptors on field telephones. While there, Judith became ill with diphtheria, which caused her to miss a children’s aktion in the camp. In September of 1944, with the Soviet army approaching, the camp was evacuated. The prisoners were marched to the port of Riga, and forced into the holds of ships for three days while they sailed to Stutthof labor camp in German-occupied Poland. Judith was very ill on the journey. Judith, Yetta, and Frieda were kept at Stutthof until October, then transferred to Thorn (Toruń), an AEG subcamp in the Stutthof complex.

In Thorn, the prisoners were forced to load and unload heavy machines for the factory, work at the river port, and manufacture ammunition and weapons. They lived in cold barracks and received one slice of bread, a little margarine, and a plate of watery soup every day. Judith had to search though the garbage for extra food under the threat of whipping if she was caught. Many prisoners froze to death. To keep warm, Judith stuffed paper under her clothes. On January 20, 1945, Thorn was evacuated ahead of the approaching Soviet army. Judith, Yeta, and Frieda were forced to march to Bydgoszcz (Bromberg), Germany, to work at a new factory. Any prisoner who strayed from the line was shot by the guards. During a lapse in the guard’s supervision, Judith, Yetta, and Frieda escaped and took shelter in an empty house. When the Germans came looking for them, they hid in the chimney. The Soviets found them the next day and gave them a small apartment to live in. Yetta stitched and repaired clothes in exchange for food.

They remained in Germany until after the war’s end in May, and then went to Łódź, Poland, hoping to discover news of Chaim and Meir. In Łódź, they shared an apartment with another family and reunited with Meir who had spent time as a forced laborer in several camps. They discovered that Chaim had been liberated and recruited by the Soviet army, but he died in battle eight days before Germany surrendered. The family remained in Łódź for a year. Frieda married a man and moved to Munich. Judith, Yetta, and Meir went to Germany and stayed near the Zeilsheim displaced persons (DP) camp in Frankfurt am Main, and were then transferred to nearby Lampertheim. Judith went to school and attended the Offenbach Conservatory of Music where she studied piano. She met Hershl (now Harry) Goldstein, a fellow survivor whose family was killed at Auschwitz. Harry immigrated to the Unites States in 1948, and waited until Judith and her family’s immigration quotas were selected. In 1949 Judith, Yetta, and Meir traveled to Bremerhaven, boarded the General Stuart Heintzelman, and sailed to New York. In the US, Yetta found work in a clothing factory and Meir became an engineer. Judith and Harry married in 1950. Judith earned a master’s degree in music and used music therapy to teach the learning and developmentally disabled. Later in life, she began creating art and music based on her experiences. She has work in the collections of Yad Vashem and the Holocaust Museum of Art in St. Petersburg Florida. Her art has also been featured in over 20 exhibits.