SURVIVOR — Holocaust survivor Inge Auerbacher she was forced to wear in Germany. She is pictured with Norma N. Alvarez, who made arrangements for Auerbacher to speak to KISD students. (Photo by Gloria Bigger Cantu) Inge Auerbacher recalled spending three years of her life from the ages of seven to 10 years in a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. The nightmare existence of death, fear and hunger blanketed her daily life.

She recalled standing in line with the other inmates to receive breakfast that was coffee, a muddy looking liquid; lunch, watery soup, a potato, and bits of turnips, and supper consisted of more soup. She found comfort clutching to the doll her grandmother had given her. Still under the hopeless situation in the concentration camp with many of her friends exterminated by the German Nazis, Auerbacher and her parents survived the harrowing experience. After the war her family later immigrated to New York.

Kingsville City employees are pictured with Inge Auerbacher after a ceremony honoring the Holocaust survivor. (Photo by Gloria Bigger-Cantu). Today, Auerbacher, an inspirational speaker and author, believes there is still a lot of goodness in this world. She remains optimistic and wants to carry this message to young people. This week she spoke to Kingsville Independent School District children relating her message of love, hope and tolerance. She captivated her audience with her riveting story of survival and hope.

She encourages students to “Love they neighbor as thyself; be tolerant; be kind, and don’t be judgmental.”

“Be kind to each other, if someone does not look like you, speak like you and has a different religion invite them to your home, “ Auerbacher said during an interview on Monday.

KISD Superintendent Emilio Castro pictured with Inge Auerbacher. (Photo by Sylvia Perez) She believes that children will thrive with proper attention, love and respect especially those children who are shunned.

“Give the students hope and love and they will become good kids,” she said.

Another reason, Auerbacher, has been focusing on the Holocaust is because she wants people to remember history and learn from the past. She said what the Germans did were terrible acts of systematically slaughtering millions of Jewish people and other minorities. She said there is no forgiveness for murder.

“These actions were premeditated murder, and I do not forgive or forget, but I believe in reconciliation,” she said. She lost 20 family members including her grandparents.

Last week when speaking at Navarro Middle School Auerbacher met a woman who was a member of youth league of Hilter and turned her parents in to the Nazis.

Kingsville Mayor Sam Fugate reads a proclamation in honor of holocaust survivor, Inge Auerbacher at a ceremony held Tuesday. City commissioners Al Garcia, center, and Arturo Pecos, left, participated in the presentation. She was also given the key to the city. (Photo by Gloria Bigger-Cantu). The woman lives in Rockport. Auerbacher hugged the woman and told her she did not hate her and said they were both innocent children in Germany.

She would never forgive the Nazis for killing her family members but she believed in reconciliation. “We have to be friends again,” she told her.

Inspirational Speaker

After speaking to students at H.M. King High School, Laser, Memorial Middle School, Kleberg and Perez elementary schools, Auerbacher received a proclamation and a key to the city of Kingsville by city officials in the afternoon.

Norma Alvarez, Special Education Director, who met Auerbacher about a year and a half ago at a Rotary Club luncheon, arranged her visit to Kingsville. “I believe she would make a positive impact on the students,” said Alvarez who served as her host during her visit. She also emphasized that education is a privilege and encouraged students to work hard, have a work ethic and dream big. As a student Auerbacher took the most difficult courses to challenge herself. She has a chemistry degree and worked as a chemist for 38 years with prominent scientists in research and clinical work.

“Never give up; tomorrow is a better day,” she said. The Holocaust survivor also told students to be optimistic.

“Surround yourself with good people,” she related to the students.

The inspirational speaker did make an impact on the students with of them asking he meaningful questions and many of them shook her hand and gave her a hug.

Auerbacher praised the KISD children referring to them as great kids with a great future.

She said she loved Kingsville and Texans because they are friendly and have a big heart. This was her second visit to the city because she had spoken to the students of the Santa Gertrudis ISD in the past. This is her sixth trip to Texas. She has become close friends with a teacher and her family in Seguin. She currently resides in Queens, N.Y.

She has written three books that focused on her life: “I Am a Star,” “Child of Holocaust,” “Beyond the Yellow Star.” Her other books include “Finding Dr. Schatz,” and “Running Against the Wind.” (All are available on Amazon).

She has lectured on the Holocaust since 1981 and has spoken to thousands of people in the U.S., Canada, and Germany. She speaks German and English fluently. Her audience include school children, college students, and adults of all ethnic backgrounds. Auerbacher has appeared nationally on several radio and television programs and a prize winning documentary film, “Olympic Doll” focused on her life and has been shown worldwide.

Auerbacher, was the last Jewish child born in Kippenheim, a village in Southwestern Germany. She was born on Dec. 31, 1934 and was the only daughter of Berthold and Regina Auerbacher. Both of her parents’ families had lived in Germany for many generations. Her father, a former soldier in the German Army during World War I became disabled after he was wounded. His father was a textile merchant.

She was only allowed to attend a Jewish school located a train ride away. She was forced to wear a yellow Star of David as a six-yearold child.

“The Nazis made us buy the stars,” Auerbacher said. She still has the original star.

Her school career ended when the transports to the “east” began. No one could escape the Holocaust and her grandmother and others were sent to Riga in Latvia where death by shooting ended their lives. She and her parents were deported in 1942 at the age of seven. She was the youngest person in a transport of 1200 people where their destination was Terezin. The child clutched her doll, Marlene, and would not let anyone take her away from her. (About 10 years ago she donated the doll to the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C.)

Transit Camp

Terezin was a transit camp before the prisoners were sent to further killing centers like Auschwitz. The concentration camp consisted of large brick barracks, underground cells and broken down houses totally sealed from the outside by high walls, wooden fences and barbed wire. During this time she contracted serious illnesses and spent months suffering from her condition.

“There were constant epidemics due to overcrowding and lack of hygiene. Rats, mice, fleas, and bedbugs were a constant menace to us. I contracted scarlet fever soon after we arrived in Terezin and spent four months in the so-called hospital. Measles, mumps and a double ear infection followed with the scarlet fever in rapid succession. I was infested with worms, I lost my voice, and my body was covered with boils,” Auerbacher described her condition in her book “I Am a Star.”

The international Red Cross visited the camp. She recalled that the children’s opera “Brundibar” was performed.

A total of 140,000 people were shipped to Terezin; 88,000 were sent to gas chambers in Auschwitz and 35,000 died of malnutrition and disease. Of the 15,000 children in Terezin, Inge is among the one percent that survived.

At the age of 10 she recalled the Soviet Army arrived and liberated the prisoners on May 10, 1945. From there the family was placed in a displaced persons’ camp in Stuttgart and eventually immigrated to America in 1946. She was stricken with a deadly disease caused by years of malnutrition in the concentration camp. For the next two years, she fought valiantly to regain her strength. Still, she continued her educational goals and graduated from Bushwick High School in Brooklyn, New York in three years in 1953. She received a BS degree in chemistry in 1958 and continued postgraduate work in biochemistry. Besides being a chemist, she is a world traveler, travel writer, and avid photographer.

Kingsville Recognition

The energetic charismatic lady continues to write. Her next book will be about people she meets on the subway. She has written and had published over 50 poems and articles. She remained silent about her war experiences until 1981 when she wrote the lyrics “We Shall Never Forget.” The music, written by her Christian friend, Rosalie Commentucci-O’Hara, was the only original song presented at the first “World Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors” in Jerusalem in 1981.

One of the highlights during her Kingsville trip was being presented a proclamation in her honor and receiving the key to the city.

The ceremony was held at City Hall and Auerbacher spoke to some city employees and few Kingsville citizens. She spoke about her childhood experiences and also Kingsville experiences. She related that this was the first time she had eaten a chicken fried steak.

“It filled up my stomach,” she said.

She said she was honored by the ceremony and when Kingsville Mayor Sam Fugate read the proclamation she teared up. She said she was proud when she received the key to the city. Then she kissed Fugate.

“I have kissed the mayors of New York, Guilianni and Bloomberg, and now I am so happy I have kissed the mayor of Kingsville.