Judith

Judith H. Sherman

Judith H. Sherman was born in 1931 in the village of Kurima, Slovakia. Her childhood was marked by the outbreak of World War II, forcing her into a life of hiding, displacement, and survival. As a young Jewish girl, she endured unimaginable hardships, from secret border crossings and capture to imprisonment by the Gestapo. In 1944, she was deported to Auschwitz, and later to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she faced the brutality of camp life. Her ordeal continued until 1945 when she was liberated by Russian soldiers while on a death march.
Following the war, Judith returned to a homeland emptied of family and fellow Jews, unable to bear the silence of her once-vibrant village. Seeking a fresh start, she emigrated first to England and then to the United States, where she built a new life. She became a social worker and psychotherapist, dedicated to helping others navigate their own struggles and traumas.
Decades later, moved by a lecture she attended at Princeton University, Judith broke her long-held silence and began to document her experiences. Her memoir, Say the Name: A Survivor’s Tale in Prose and Poetry, reflects the voice of a fourteen-year-old girl confronting the horrors of the Holocaust. Through prose and poetry, Judith captures her journey from terror to survival, bearing witness to the resilience of the human spirit. Her powerful words and the inclusion of secret drawings from Ravensbrück prisoners make her work a vital contribution to Holocaust literature, reminding readers of the importance of memory and compassion in the face of history’s darkest moments.