WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — It's a celebration of life and survival for Russian and Ukrainian survivors of World War II and the Holocaust. Within the crowd is Leonora Neyman.
"I was born when my mother immigrated from Ukraine to Siberia, and I was born in Siberia in 1942," she said.
Neyman lost her grandparents.
"They said we are too old, and nobody will touch us. But the first day when Germany came to this city, they killed everybody," she said.
It is memories like Neyman's, and countless others, that the Alpert Jewish Family Service Center recognizes in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Over 50 Palm Beach County Russian and Ukranian Holocaust survivors attended. They were treated to Russian themed music and entertainment.
"Having a gathering, and we call ours Eat & Schmooze, has been in some ways the backbone of what we try to do to offer support to our survivors," Eva Weiss with the Alpert Jewish Family Service Center said.
With the number of Holocaust survivors dwindling as time goes by hosting a get together like this gives them chance to celebrate survivors' stories, an opportunity to spend quality time together, and remember those painful lessons of the past that seem even more relevant in recent days with Nazi symbols appearing around Palm Beach County.
"It's terrible, it's awful, it should never happen again, because people cannot go through this," Neyman said.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day is on Friday.
