Holocaust survivor tells her story in Austintown

AUSTINTOWN — The yellow cloth star is in good shape, for how old it is. Inge Auerbacher protects it in heavy plastic.

As a group of girls gathered around her in the cafetorium at Austintown Middle School, Auerbacher turned the star over to show the backing her mother had sewn on it because the material was so flimsy.

Then she turned it back over to show the front again, where the word “Jude” , or “Jew,” jumps strongly off the bright yellow background.

Auerbacher held the Star of David up to one girl’s chest to show where she herself had worn it as a child who lived through the Holocaust of World War II, when 11 million people perished at the hands of Nazi Germany.

Three million of those people were children, but through sheer luck, Auerbacher wasn’t one of them.

She brought her story, pictures and — still intact, she said — her faith in God to AMS Monday.

Four hundred pupils there got a chance to hear about the Holocaust from a survivor, which is a privilege upcoming generations won’t have. Some said they know how fortunate they are.

For more, see Tuesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com