http://www.tfn.net/holocaust/2005/2005_w/
Mary was born in Vilna, in Northern Poland (currently Lithuania), where she lived happily with her family until the Nazis took over in 1941. That's when her hell began. She and her immediate family were taken to the Vilna Ghetto and later, at the liquidation, was forcefully separated from them. She would never see them again. She endured forced labor in a number of concentration camps: Riga (Latvia), Shtutthof (East Prussia), and Magdeburg (German). She told of the miserable existence in these camps and how fate spared her from death a couple of times. She also spoke of her liberation by the Allies.
At the end of the war, she learned that she was the only member of her immediate family who had surivived the Holocaust. She eventually made her way to Israel and finally to America. She now resides in St. Petersburg, Fla. with her husband. She has two children (son and daughter), who also participated in the presentation. (The son introduced his mother and the daughter showed slides.) Then there was a Question and Answer period. I asked her this question: "I'm concerned as fewer and fewer survivors remain that the Holocaust deniers will get more aggressive. Do you know of any source that could tell us how many survivors remain?" She said she could only speak for where she lived: St. Petersburg, Tampa and Clearwater area. There are 100. But the majority of them do not want to speak of their experiences. She, on the other hand, feels it her moral obligation to testify firsthand of the Nazi brutality and that the lessons of the Holocaust should never be forgotten." Someone next asked her if her story had ever been recorded for the Holocaust Museum in Washington or even the one in St. Petesburg. She said, "Regrettably no." She one time attempted to speak on a tape recorder, but it was not clear, so she gave up on that. And she is not a writer. The best she could do was speak to groups in the hopes that they remember and hand it down to others.
After we were dismissed, some of us went up to speak to her. Lo and behold! The lady ahead of me, Jennie Grill, who has completed her dissertation on a Holocaust related issue and is a professional writer, offered her services to write a book on Mary's life. They will work out the details. I was so pleased to hear this, since so many people in the audience had already strongly urged her to record her life experiences for future generations. I do really hope that this gets done and I may one day possess a copy of this work.