DAVIE, Fla. – Rena Reiter is among the estimated 50,000 Holocaust survivors who still live in the United States and among those who live in Broward County who are still able to tell their stories.
Reiter, 99, said she still remembers soldiers separating her from her family and holding her at the infamous Ravensbrück, known by historians as the largest women’s concentration camp.
“I think about my parents,” Reiter said. “I think about my brothers.”
Reiter and five other Holocaust survivors were the guests of honor during an event on Wednesday in Davie to honor those born in or before 1923.
Lucy Blicker said she remembers being a teenage girl with her mother in Poland when soldiers took her to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where historians estimate over 1.1 million were killed.
Blicker, 101, who lives in Pompano Beach, said she survived a few years there, and when she attempted to escape, the soldiers in occupied Poland during World War II captured her.
“With God, we survived,” Blicker said.
Allied and Soviet troops liberated the Ravensbrück and Auschwitz-Birkenau camps in 1945. Reiter and Blicker said they both later decided to move to the United States.
Blicker was already married when she moved in 1959. Reiter said she met her husband in New York, and they had two sons, two grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
“It’s lonely, but they keep me alive,” Reiter said.
The two women were not alone on Wednesday when they celebrated with Auschwitz survivor Elaine Lefkowitz and three other fellow Holocaust survivors who also live in Broward — Chaim Greenberg, Helen Diker, and David Sroka.
The Goodman Jewish Family Services of Broward hosted the event. For information about how to contribute to the nonprofit organization’s Holocaust survivor assistance program, visit this page.