JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, Va. -- –
To honor and remember the lives lost during the Holocaust, U.S. Service members from Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, took time to reflect during the "Holocaust Days of Remembrance" week that started May 1, 2016, and continued through May 8.
JBLE partnered with the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater to host a Holocaust Days of Remembrance ceremony April 20, 2016, at Fort Eustis. The ceremony was held to recognize the horrors of the past to prevent the same mistakes in the future.
The story of Kitty Saks, a holocaust survivor and guest speaker in 2012, was shared during the ceremony.
"I am a child survivor of the Holocaust, which means I was spared concentration camps only because Christians saved my life," said Saks, who lost 27 family members during the Holocaust, and now works with United Jewish Federation of Tidewater to share her experiences.
Saks was born in Austria in November 1932, and as the presence of Nazi soldiers became apparent, her family fled to Brussels, Belgium to escape. With the help of Fernande Henrard, a member of the Belgium Resistance and Sak's family friend, Saks was placed in a convent under the pseudonym of Rosette Nizolle. Saks survived by passing as a devout catholic and even being baptized while in hiding, said Saks.
"I knew that I would be safe in the convents, but I always afraid my parents would be taken by the Gestapo," said Saks.
Hidden children, like Saks, survived persecution by hiding, whether with their parents or in convents, orphanages, woods, basements or anywhere that was safe from Nazi forces. Hidden children survivors are the last living survivors of the Holocaust.
"It was an upside-down world," said Saks, who is now 83 years old. "I am still tormented by the past to this day."
On Sept. 4, 1944, the region was liberated by Allied forces, and Saks ran all the way home to find her parents who took refuge in an attic close by. An American soldier, whom was a member of their extended family, found the family through the Red Cross. In 1948, the family immigrated to the United States, and started their new lives in Norfolk.
"I just hope that this nightmare, this horror that is indescribable, will never happen again," said Saks. "We must study and learn from our past so that we don't repeat it in the future."
Saks said she has been speaking about her experiences since 1951 and has had her story shared hundreds of times.
"We have these days to remember the victims of the war, because not to remember them is to kill them all over again," said Saks.
The Holocaust Days of Remembrance week, which was first observed in 1982, is an annual commemoration of the millions of lives lost during the persecution of approximately 6 million Jews by the Nazi regime.
For more information on Holocaust Remembrance Day/Days of Remembrance, contact the Joint Base Langley-Eustis Equal Opportunity Office at (757) 764-5877 or (757) 764-5878.