Judy Rodan, Holocaust Survivor

Judy was born in Berehovo, Czechoslovakia, in 1938, to Elizabeth and Luis Lebovic. It was a loving family, living in their Barrel Factory. Judy’s mother was a pianist, her father an agronomist, who played the violin in a duet with his wife, entertaining family and friends. Szuzsi Neufeld, who became Szuzsi Gonda, and her brother Eugene, where half siblings to Judy’s mother Elizabeth.

Judy’s father had been taken as a soldier to the Russian Front, never to return. In April 1944, at the age of 6, when the Nazis invaded her town, Judy was given to a savior, the wife of the foreman, Mrs. Varias, who visited the house, and was present in the turmoil of a fate decision. She took her by train, to Hungary, as Judy’s mother and grandmother decided they would travel with Judy’s younger brother, Lacika, to all meet next day. That same night, the Hungarians gathered all the town in the family’s barrel Factory, which became the first ghetto, to confine them later in a ghetto close by, and from there, in Passover, they were deported to Auschwitz, to forever vanish.

Judy’s new identity was Haydu Katalin. She was kept hidden in the basement of Mrs. Varias, a Christian lady who risked her own life, hiding her in the dark basement at her home in Budapest. 

Later on, Judy was taken to a convent in Hungary, Sacré Coeur. In 1945, she was rescued by her aunt Susan who survived Auschwitz, and together with her  husband Leslie Gonda, they were able to get false documents for Judy to leave Hungary, to board the ship to emigrate to Venezuela in 1947.

Zsuzsi and Laci, two Survivors who were starting a life anew, became Judy’s beloved parents. Judy lived in Venezuela, Detroit and New York, and married Leslie Rodan in 1956 as she returned from US to Venezuela, living with Uncle Eugene and Pearl.

She married Leslie Rodan in 1956. Their children are Ronny, Lizbeth and Luis. Judy dedicated her contribution work to Shaare Zedek Hospital, and The Venezuelan Children Foundation, as she also worked in the family’s printing business for 50 years. At age 60 she studied and graduated of Philosophy at the Third Age University. In 1990 she founded a therapy and support group to help people in need.

Judy’s husband Leslie Rodan, a Holocaust Survivor, passed away in the year 2000. In 2017 Judy moved to Miami, Florida, to meet with her children, and began her journey of providing awareness and guidance to help the youngsters by her Holocaust experience as a  Hidden Child Survivor, and deliver her message, through prestigious institutions sponsored by the Gonda Foundation, such as The University of Miami Holocaust Teachers Institute by Dr Miriam Kassenoff, the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center by Rositta Kenigsberg, gives her testimony weekly to students at the Holocaust Memorial Museum -Miami Beach, and attends the schools and Institutions that invite her as a guest speaker. She continues to provide  private therapy and love to anyone in need, and is dedicated to her family, of three children, 7  grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. Judy’s message is of Unity, Love and Understanding amongst all Human Beings.