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“Those ... children’s eyes still haunt me, because their story was mine,” she told a packed house at Viterbo University’s Fine Arts Center on Monday night.
Auerbacher spent ages 7 through 10 in the Terezin, or Theresienstadt, concentration camp with her family during World War II.
In her presentation “Through the Eyes of a Child Survivor,” she showed slides of rare photographs, both of her family and others persecuted during the Holocaust.
Although she was Jewish, Auerbacher said, she considered herself a happy, “normal” German child before the terror began.
In August 1942, Auerbacher and her parents were sent to Terezin, where 140,000 Jews were kept while the Nazis and Adolph Hitler held power in Germany.
They endured abject poverty, cruel beatings and the constant threats of hunger and death in the camp, she said, but they were able to get out alive.
“I never lost my faith in God or humanity,” she said.
Auerbacher has gone on to become a chemist, as well an author and Holocaust speaker.
“I was surprised by all the pictures and that she spoke English so well,” said 13-year-old Matt Boswell of La Crosse. “I was very surprised she made it out.”
Susan Ferris, 60, of Houston, Minn., also was convinced Auerbacher made it out through the force of her will and personality.
“She came across as very strong,” Ferris said. “I’m sure that’s why she made it out.”
Auerbacher said she travels the world telling her story because those who did not survive must be remembered.
“Had more people done something, this would not have gone as far as it did,” she said.
She also sees a world in which peace is not a dream, but a reality. But it takes getting to know one another on a person-to-person level, she said.
“There can be peace,” Auerbacher said. “If we learned from each other, there would be no wars.”
Ryan Stotts can be reached at (608) 791-8446 or ryan.stotts@lee.net.
