Though these events happened long ago, it is wise for the younger generations to be aware of what had happened in the past so that they may never forget and make better decisions for the future. It is prudent for us to hear of the stories of these survivors and learn the resilience of the human heart, spirit and soul.

Miriam Friedman Ziegler

At age eight Miriam Friedman Ziegler, her parents and other random Polish citizens were loaded into cattle cars and shipped to Auschwitz. The children where taken to the adjacent Birkenau death camp. There, along with a few of her cousins and other girls who would eventually become her lifelong friends, she experienced what a child should never have to go through - being experimented on and being in constant fear for her life. 

"Every time they took out a few of the children for experiments some came back, some didn't," she recalled.

Zieglar spent time in several hospitals and orphanages in Eastern Europe before she came to Canada as part of the 1,000 child refugee group. Two years later her mother found her way to Canada as well and they lived in Toronto where she eventually met her husband who is also a Holocaust survivor. Together they have three children, one of whom will be accompanying her to Poland - her daughter Adrienne Shulman.

Greta Wienfeld Ferusic

A9233 was the number tattooes on her arm that she had to shout out for 10 whole months during daily morning at lineups at Auschwitz. Dr. Joseph Mengele personally took the 19-year-old Ferusic away from her mother when they arrived with her two aunts and an uncle at the camp on April 1944. Greta says she survived because of the Nazis efforts to cover up their genocide by destroying crematoriums as the Soviets were getting close. 

Ferusic said she was sick and was sent to the barracks-turned-hospital located near the crematoriums. She refused orders when they were told that prisoners who could walk should move to a waiting train for evacuation to the West. When the Red Army came, she and other survivors were rescued and fed. And after returning home, she realized that she was the sole survivor.

Marta WiseThe famous black-and-white photo of about a dozen children in rags standing behind a row of barbed wire has become one of the most iconic images of the Holocaust taken by a Russian liberator. The 10-year old Slovakian Jew, Marta Wise, along with her sister Eva were among the children in that photo.  "That I survived and my sister survived is beyond me. I've never been able to work it out," said Wise, now 80 and living in Jerusalem.

Wise and her sister were put in the medical experiment block of Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. She received assorted injections that made her pass out or left her writhing in pain. Because she had green eyes, she was spared from some of his more sinister tests, which were attempts to transform the dark eyes of Jews and gypsies into a more blue, or Aryan, appearance. 

Wise hitchhiked with her sister back to Bratislava after the war. They miraculously rejoined their parents with all but one of her nine siblings. Her younger sister, Judith, died at Auschwitz.

Martin Greenfield

In 1944, Martin Greenfield stood in line as his mother, grandparents, two sisters, and baby brother were all sent to the left of the line to be burned in the ovens. He and his father were sent to the right to become slaves. His father told him that they must separate in order to double their chance of surviving. That was the last time he saw his father. His father told him that if he survived, he must honor them by living and not feeling sorry for those who did not.

Because of an experience wherein a Nazi guard beat him severely for tearing his uniform, Greenfield learned to sew when an older inmate taught him a simple stitch.  It later became his livelihood. From concentration camp to becoming a tailor for the U.S. presidents, influential men, and Hollywood films.

Ivor Perl

"I was 12 years and two months old when I went to Auschwitz. And when I think back, I remember seeing it as an adventure as well. I don't know if I'm not ashamed to say that," Perl said as he thought back to his experience of entering the Nazi camp.

Perl was separated from his mother and siblings once they arrived. Although he pleaded to go with his mother, she told him that he must go back to his line. That was the last time he saw his mother. 
To this day Perl says still hears the click-clacking of the train going over the tracks as it made its way to the Nazi camps.