NEW YORK (PIX11) — As the world commemorates International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a resilient survivor who endured the horrors of living in a concentration camp at a young age is sharing his harrowing experience.
Joseph Berger recounts the horrifying moments when life changed completely for him and his family living during the Holocaust.
“Everything was fine,” Berger said. “One million Jews walking around free in March of 1944 in Hungary and all of a sudden it was changed.”
Berger says there were restrictions on what he and other Jews were able to do.
"You had to wear a star,” said Berger. “You couldn't eat here, you couldn't go to school there. You couldn't do this, you couldn't do that."
The 86-year-old who was born in Yugoslavia remembers seeking cover from bombs as a kid, even taking cover in his dad's medical office.
"The Germans came and they were bombing the heck out of Belgrade,” Berger said. “He had an office in the same building where we lived and used X-rays so, we went there and hid behind the X-ray thing in case anything happened."
The survivor tells PIX11 News his family eventually ended up living in a concentration camp in Germany where he celebrated his seventh birthday. As he looks back at those daunting memories on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, he's emphasizing the importance of never forgetting the atrocities that he and millions of other Jews endured.
"We have to remember it because people don't realize what a terrible thing this is,” said Berger. “Unless you are there and you experience it and your family experiences it. What did I do to not be able to go to school, not be able to work?”
Berger now does speaking engagements and shares his story of a past he says he will never forget.
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