FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. (WXYZ) — Every year, the number of Holocaust survivors is waning. Which is why every year on Holocaust Remembrance Day, survivor Rae Nachbar shares her story.
"We are really disappearing species," said Nachbar. "I was one of five children. I was the youngest, and I am the only one left standing."
Nachbar's story began at the young age of 7 when in 1939, she and her family were driven out of their Poland home by Germans.
"They drove all of the Jews from our town out. There was no warning, just a knock on the door to come out," said Nachbar.
She said that from then after, she was like a gypsy.
Her family traveled from country to country, seeking refuge. They were able to persevere through the harsh abuse until 1946, when her parents were murdered by anti-Semites back home in Poland.
Nachbar said, "In 1946, a year after the war, I was orphaned, and that was a very difficult pill to swallow."
While Nachbar moved from country to country, the woman who would one day be her sister-in-law, Ruth Webber, was in a concentration camp - the largest of the German Nazi camps.
"Mom was one of the youngest survivors of Auschwitz," explained her daughter Elaine Webber.
Ruth Webber passed away on January 1st of this year, but her three daughters keep her story of survival alive.
When asked how their mother would describe that time period to them, Shelly Webber responded, "She was terrified. Her memories are mostly emotional, feelings of being terrified, being hungry, being cold, and the smell."
Ruth Webber endured unspeakable horrors and was liberated when she was nine years old.
Both she and Nachbar have spent the majority of the past 80 Holocaust Remembrance Days here in Michigan. They share their stories of survival so that we all may continue to listen and learn.
"Out of the ashes, they created life, and you know that is probably the most important thing, that no matter what happens in your life, you have to figure out a way to rise above it and to persevere," said Elaine Webber.
Nachbar said, "It's a story that needs to be told."
We interviewed these families at the Zekelman Holocaust Center in Farmington Hills. The Center just received an exhibit called The Evidence Room, full of architectural Forensic Evidence of the gas chambers constructed by Nazis.
