Prisoner of Zion - Ida Nudel

by Carol Golfus and Naomi Ballas

Ida Nudel had first applied for an exit visa in May 1971. In January 1972 she was dismissed from her place of work. Ida continued to re-apply to emigrate and each time was refused. She became an active figure in the Jewish immigration movement, identifying herself with the growing number of fellow-refuseniks. She corresponded regularly with the prisoners; sent them parcels of food, medicine and books; visited camps, prisons and transport points; and made representations on prisoners' behalf to camp administrations and to the authorities in Moscow. Through demonstrations, correspondence and frequent meetings with foreigners visiting Moscow, she regularly exposed the violation of the prisoners' rights perpetrated by the authorities. As a consequence of her activities, Ida was frequently subjected to police harassment.

In June 1978, Ida, a frail 47-year old woman, ill and exhausted, made her public statement from her balcony. It was a plea of desperation to join her family in Israel. On June 21, 1978, the Judges in the People's Court of the Volgogradsky Region in Moscow handed down a verdict of guilty on charges of "malicious hooliganism" and sentenced Ida Nudel to a term of four years of exile in Siberia. She had been tried and convicted for publicly expressing her desire to emigrate from the Soviet Union and join her only surviving family in Israel.
 
 
 

Ida Nudel in exile

Siberia. Snowy frosty Siberia. A little village lost in its swamps and woods. Worn-out wooden huts drawn to the ground by snow. A land forgotten by G-d and men.

The motor boat was coming along the Ob, making an awful noise, along the gray cliffs, under the gray sun. The autumn of 1978. It was raining heavily when I came ashore. I had to ask several people for directions to the hostel. A street paved with broken boards. I covered one kilometer, then another, a third and found myself in the woods. A little further off I saw lights and a wooden hut with small, dirty windows.

"Who's there?"

"It is me , Sender. Open, Ida."

She opened the door. There was a small woman standing on the threshold, her eyes feverishly bright. She came close to me and shook with noiseless sobs. I closed the door behind me and tried to calm her. She kept touching me to make sure I was real and there with her.

"Who lives here? Are there any women?"

"Former convicts live here, people who are not allowed to live in towns. They are murderers and gangsters with no decency. They work in the woods extracting peat."

I could only try to cheer her up and told her that her friends were trying to help her.

We stayed up all through that first night until dawn came. In the morning I went to the washroom. There is just one washroom in the hostel, several broken washstands and dirty walls. I wanted to draw water to make tea, but the water was full of rust. When I asked Ida about this she smiled and explained that the water contained a lot of iron and peat. "You must not forget we are living in a swamp."

A report by Sender Levinson, who visited her in September 1978.
 

The Plight of Soviet Jewry

English Inspectorate, Jerusalem 1987

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