"I think I deserve a little peace at this age": Holocaust survivor in East Hampton faces eviction
NEW YORK -- Judith Sleed was the only member of her family after the Holocaust; now, the East Hampton great-grandmother, who carries decades of memories and heartbreak, faces eviction.
Sleed, a retired piano teacher, is weeks from her 91st birthday. She enjoys playing her favorite composer Imre Kalman, of Hungary.
"I fell in love with him and music," Sleed said.
Hungary is the land she fled after the Holocaust claimed the lives of her mother, father and only sibling.
"The S.S. soldiers came and took them," Sleed said.
She was 12 at the time and was marched away.
"I took with me a little suitcase and I just went with the rest of the Jews, on foot," Sleed added.
She survived in a Red Cross shelter and eventually made it to America, where she married and raised a family, but she is worried she may have to move again.
"What would it mean to you to be evicted?" CBS2's Jennifer McLogan asked Sleed.
She answered, "Oh my gosh. I can't even think about it. I have no place to go."
Sleed failed to recertify her eligibility for state assistance, which she depends on for her small subsidized apartment. It created a banking problem. An attorney working pro bono discovered that Sleed, who once wrote a children's book, owes $17,000 in back rent.
"So all these things led to a slippery slope that put Ms. Sleed into the position where she is in, which, unfortunately, happens to many Holocast survivors based on their age [and] lack of technical proficiency," attorney Stanislav Gomberg said.
The Blue Card nonprofit organization dedicated to helping Holocaust survivors is now involved. Sleed's 60-year-old son, Jeff, has moved into the apartment to help care for his mom, and he sleeps on the couch.
Should the eviction transpire, results for Sleed could be bleak, according to her son. Affordable rents in the Hamptons, especially since the pandemic, appear non-existent.
Sleed, who is no stranger to loss, has kept the last words from her father, who was forced by the Nazis to write that "all was well."
"They gave people postcards to send home before they went into the gas chamber," Sleed said.
Yet, she remains hopeful.
"I think I deserve a little peace at this age," she said.
CBS2 reached out to the managers of Sleed's senior complex, Windmill Village, and have not yet heard back.
