In ‘I Am Judit’ Judy Sleed Reveals Her Long Hidden Story of Survival

At the age of 91, East Hampton resident Judy Sleed is a Holocaust survivor, but until recently, she had never shared her story, even with her own children.

Sleed, a native of Hungary who hosts a long-running local talk show “The Play Is the Thing” on LTV, the local public access TV station in Wainscott, is the star of the new documentary “I Am Judit” by Hampton Bays filmmaker Christiane Arbesu and her company Terrebonne Productions. In it, for the first time ever, she shares with Arbesu (and her children) the horrors of what happened to her during the Holocaust.

“I’m very honored somebody’s paying attention to me,” Sleed said humbly in an interview from her hospital room where she ended up after a recent bout with pneumonia. “A lot of people are asking me questions, like, here in the hospital. One of the nurses asked if I was the Holocaust lady. And then they want to know how if they could watch the documentary.”

One way is to go to LTV Studios on Saturday, November 11, where there will be a 6 p.m. screening of the film. A question and answer session with Sleed and Arbesu will follow.

The film comes at a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise around the world, in light of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Sleed said it is important to her to share her story while she still can, especially given the harsh reality that Holocaust deniers still exist in the world.

“I just wanted to leave a legacy,” said Sleed, who long thought that she was protecting her children by shielding them from what happened to her. “And to make sure everybody knew that this did happen, because some people say it never happened. But it did. And I wanted people to know that it did happen, especially my family because I never told them.”

Arbesu, who has been working with LTV for about two years, launched the series “Life Stories,” about older people living in the Hamptons, exploring their relationship to the area, how they got there, and what it means to them.

“I’m very drawn to older people,” said Arbesu.

Sleed, who was finally ready to tell her story after so many years, heard about Arbesu’s mission and contacted her. After Arbesu wrapped up an intensive project, she began filming Sleed and her children and she shared stories with them they had never heard before.

When the Nazis invaded Hungary in 1944, they murdered Sleed’s mother, brother, father, and several aunts, uncles and cousins. Sleed was an adult living in the United States before she realized how many people were murdered in the Holocaust and tried to avoid learning the details, so she would not have to think about what happened to her own family.

Sleed describes her life growing up in Budapest as very normal, until she and her family were forced to move from Pest, on the eastern side of the Danube River, to Obuda on the west side of the river. One day, her father and brother were taken away by the Nazis. A few days later, an announcement came on the radio demanding all mothers to report to a local train station. Sleed’s mother was one of the women who did what she was told.

“Such a random decision in that moment changed everyone’s life,” said Arbesu. “It changed Judy’s life, her children’s lives, her grandchildren’s lives, and her great-grandchildren’s lives. I wanted to show the impact on Judy, but it’s not just her, it’s across so many generations. Everyone suffers.”

A few days after her mother was sent to the train station, never to return, Sleed was forced to vacate where her family had been staying. Despite being just 12 years old, Sleed survived by walking out of an opening in a brick wall in the bombed-out house she had stopped in during a forced march and went to live with an aunt in America. Tragically, Sleed’s son Jeff, who is featured in the new documentary, died just a few weeks ago. Her daughter Jill died in 2016. In a life plagued by such loss, including the death of two children, Arbesu was struck by Sleed’s strength and resilience.

“She doesn’t complain,” said Arbesu. “She never tells her story so people feel sorry for her.”

Throughout filming, Sleed was the perfect documentary interview, Arbesu said. “She was actually really open,” Arbesu said. “There were times that, of course, it was difficult for her and for me to hear, but Judy’s story, as awful as it is ... she is a survivor. And she got out.”

Arbesu said she posed deep questions to Sleed, like if she ever dreams of her parents, and how old she is in the dreams. There are other sweet moments in the documentary, like when Sleed talks about dancing with her father, the owner of a leather goods store, growing up.

“I wanted to capture the normalcy,” said Arbesu. “I wanted to capture that this was a young innocent girl ... This is what happened to six million Jews who were just sitting at their table, having dinner like they do every night, or listening to records or dancing or playing cards, doing whatever it is that they would do, and the complete disruption and destruction that ensued is unimaginable.”

Sleed’s children were also open to telling their story, and Arbesu assured them they did not have to delve into anything that made them uncomfortable. As a bonus, Judy met her great-grandchildren for the first time during the filming of the documentary, as the pandemic prevented her from previously doing so.

“I Am Judit,” which is Arbesu’s second feature length documentary and recently won best feature film at the Toronto Documentary Feature & Short Film Festival, also includes details about a play Sleed wrote about her experiences. Called “Delibab-Utca,” the play is named for the street where she stayed in a home with other children, waiting to escape. Sleed has had a few readings of the play, but hopes a director or producer will produce it. It contains dialogue of all of the children in the home telling their stories.

“I feel that it will be helpful for children to learn about [the Holocaust] that way because it’s done in a gentle way,” Sleed said.

The screening of “I Am Judit” on Saturday, November 11, at 6 p.m. will be at LTV Studios, 75 Industrial Road, Wainscott. The screening is free to the public and no reservations are necessary. View the trailer at bit.ly/494Y55c.