Longtime Nevada City, CA resident, Judith Kenedi passed away peacefully in her sleep with family by her side on January 14, 2024. She was 95 years old.
A survivor of the Holocaust and a proud and active member of the Jewish community, Judy lived in the Nevada City area for more than 40 years. She was strong willed, often stubborn, and did not suffer fools or slights lightly. At the same time, she was also a fierce protector and defender of underdogs everywhere, possessing a sharp tongue, a wicked sense of humor, and an enormous heart.
Her long and adventurous life was full of as many curiosities and contradictions as she was. Born April 10th, 1928, Judy was just 16 in the summer of 1944, when the Nazis invaded her hometown of Miskolc (pronounced Mish-kults), Hungary. They crammed thousands of the city’s Jews, including Judy, her mother, brother, and a number of cousins into cargo trains and sent them off to the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp.
Often called “the Nazi’s deadliest camp,” prisoners held at Auschwitz endured numerous horrific atrocities on a daily basis. Judy’s mother, brother, and all her cousins were killed in the camps, but she somehow survived, exhibiting the indomitable will and unbreakable spirit that she was recognized for her entire life. “I was in such pain and I was so scared,” she said in an interview with the Auburn Journal in 1994. “But I wound’t give up. I said to myself, ‘I’m not going to die here. I’m not going to give them the satisfaction,’ because that’s what they were waiting and hoping for.”
One story in particular perfectly illustrates Judy’s pride and defiance in the face of Nazi cruelty. In Auschwitz and other camps, Jewish prisoners were forced to wear drab gray pajama-like uniforms with the infamous yellow Star of David pinned on their chests. Any other adornment was strictly forbidden. Despite that, and knowing all too well the likely punishment, one day Judy decided to add a flourish of color to her uniform by donning a bright red scarf. For this infraction she was forced to kneel on pavement covered in small sharp pebbles, holding large heavy rocks over her head in each hand, while vicious German Shepherds on leashes held by guards circled her, ready to attack if she dropped either rock. But she never did. For an hour and a half, Judy held those rocks up above her head, shards digging into her bloody knees, until eventually the dogs tired out and the Nazis grew bored and moved on to their next victim.
In winter of 1945, Auschwitz was liberated by the Allied army. Judy was free but entirely on her own. And while her time at Auschwitz profoundly impacted her life, she was determined to never let the experience define it.
After the war, she made her way to New York where she was reunited with a handful of friends and family, and embarked on a new life as an American citizen. In 1946, at 18 years old, she married her childhood sweetheart, Tommy Kenedi—who had also made it to New York from Hungary. They had two children, a boy Ron, and seven years later a girl named Susan. They lived a relatively quiet and prosperous life in Freeport, Long Island where he owned and ran a restaurant and she worked as the President of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) and was a staunch community volunteer. In 1993 they retired and moved to Nevada City to be closer to family.
Judy was a magnificent and abundant cook, mostly of delicious, rich, and complex Hungarian dishes that are as difficult to spell as they are to pronounce. Not only could she prepare an award winning chicken soup, she could also trap, kill, de-feather, and break down that chicken with the speed and deftness of an expert chef (which she did multiple times while visiting her son, Ron and his family in rural Northern California).
While living in New York she nurtured a keen eye for style and fashion, the more colorful the better. She drove a silver 1976 Cadillac El Dorado with bright red leather interiors and wore all the latest hot designs. When her young grandson, who stayed with her and Tommy every summer, arrived at JFK with long unkempt hair and raggedy country clothes, Judy would pick him up, promptly take him to get his hair washed and cut, and dress him in the latest Izod Lacoste, London Fog, and Levis jeans (or “dungarees” as she called them). When summer was over, she would send him back to his hippie commune, audaciously over dressed, smelling like Paco Rabanne cologne.
She will be remembered fondly, not just for overcoming the immense suffering and loss of her youth, but doing so with a rare poise and dignity, and an almost boundless reservoir of strength.
She will be dearly missed by family, friends, and community, but her influence will be felt by all who knew her for generations to come.
She is survived by her son, Ron Kenedi, and her grandsons Aaron Kenedi and Miles Pineda-Kenedi.
