PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — Students at Palm Beach State College got to hear a first-hand account of what it was like to survive one of the darkest times in history.
Mary Eckstein, a holocaust survivor, spoke at the school Thursday as part of their Holocaust Remembrance Day programming.
She said as dark as that time was, it’s important to still talk about this time, and time again.
Holocaust survivor Mary Eckstein tells WPTV about the importance of sharing her story
“I'm very grateful that I'm still able to talk about those years,” Eckstein told WPTV reporter Victor Jorges. “I think they have to be spoken about, and we have to tell because this young generation grew up in safety and it's so far away from their experiences, and they have to be reminded what hate can do.”
She said she’s noticed there’s “a lot of hate in the world today,” and constant comparison between communities.
Eckstein talked to students about what it was like to hide, beg for food, and be separated from her parents when she was just 8 years old.
She remembers when guards at a concentration camp would trick prisoners telling them to go shower but in reality they were sent to die in gas chambers.
She was rescued in 1945 when the Soviet Union liberated Budapest.
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She told the students that although her stories sound impossible, to always believe Holocaust survivors when they get the chance to meet them. In those times, she says the impossible was their reality.
“Things happen in life and you live long enough, then you realize it's true that you can't explain [them],” she said. “Depending on your faith, it may be your faith that God is looking over you or that people are better than we give them credit for, but episodes are in most people's life that simply cannot be explained.”
Eckstein was invited by the school and the event was organized by associate professor and librarian Lisa Seymour.
Seymour said it’s important that students hear this testimony.
“What happened in the 1940s is not different than what happened on Oct. 7 in Israel, and if we can share this history, and become more of a community and less about the other and be less afraid of the other, then maybe we can prevent more of this horrible history from happening,” Seymour told Jorges. “We have to remember and never forget.”
