SCRANTON, Pa. — Students and guests filled a ballroom inside the Hilton Scranton and Conference Center for the 35th Annual Teen Symposium on the Holocaust.
The two-day event gives students first-hand accounts of Holocaust survivors and those who helped them to escape.
"The kids get to get this close and talk to them. What was it like? How bad was it? It's very compelling," said Jim Connors, symposium organizer.
Lois Flamholz is a Holocaust survivor. Lois was 15 years old when she and her family were taken to Auschwitz.
She was separated from her parents and siblings. Lois spoke several languages, including German and Russian, and had an encounter with a worker at the camp which Lois believes is part of the reason she's alive today.
"If this Russian girl wouldn't have said something to me while I was working to try and avoid getting a number, I guess I would have died in Auschwitz," said Lois Flamholz, Holocaust survivor.
Six million Jewish people were killed by Nazi forces, more than one million of those were children.
"It was one of the worst examples of evil in the whole history of mankind," said Connors.
Lois is 95 years old today and says it's important for her to speak about the horrors she experienced.
"It's not easy. Most of the time, I go home, and I don't sleep a few nights, thinking of my whole story of my whole life. I have children now, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and I hope they never have to go through what I went through," said Lois.
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