Judith was the older of two children born to Jewish parents in the town of Kiskunfelegyhaza in southeastern Hungary. Her mother, Anna, and her mother's sister, Kornelia, were close in age and had a contest to see who would be the first to have a baby. Judith's Aunt Kornelia won the contest and cousin Maria was born in December 1931, just three weeks before Judith.

1933-39: Judith's father had a prosperous wholesale business that sold goose meat, down, feathers and quilts. In 1939, the same year that Judith began attending school, the Hungarian government enacted a new law that decreed Jews were not entitled to the same rights as other Hungarians.

1940-44: In November 1940 Hungary became an ally of Nazi Germany. More laws were passed to restrict the rights of Hungary's Jews. Judith, who was a good student and wrote articles for a weekly children's newspaper, was forced out of public school. In March 1944 the Germans occupied Hungary. That April, Kiskunfelegyhaza's 700 Jews were moved into a ghetto set up by Hungarian officials. Two months later, all 700 were transported to Kecskemet, a deportation center for Jews in southern Hungary.

Between June 25 and 28, 1944, Judith and her family were deported to Auschwitz, where Judith was gassed upon arrival. She was 12 years old.

Judith Schwed