HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – One-hundred-and-fifty Holocaust survivors from South Florida gathered at a Hollywood synagogue Thursday morning to celebrate life.
Goodman Jewish Family Services of Broward County hosted the program, called Café Europa, at Temple Beth El. Its aim is to bring survivors together over a shared meal and “foster a sense of community.”
“The name ‘Café Europa’ originates from a café in Stockholm, Sweden, where survivors would gather post-war in hopes of finding family and friends,” according to the organization.
The number of living Holocaust survivors continues to dwindle as the years ago by. Susanna Moore, 85, who was originally from Hungary and lost 19 family members to the genocide, said she’s “very thankful” to be alive and celebrated.
“We are still here and we have a voice,” Moore said. “We are the survivors.”
Survivor Viola Baras, 96, was 16 when she and her family were forcibly taken by the Nazis to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Hers was one of only two families from their town in Czechoslovakia to survive intact.
She said her mission is to educate non-Jewish people about the horrors of the Holocaust.
“I realized they have no idea all this hatred is out there,” Baras said. “But I can’t understand what are they hating us for.”
Moore said her message to society is simple: “Be kind to each other.”
“We have to teach how to love instead of hate,” she said.