SPOKANE, Wash. — A 97-year-old Holocaust survivor is sharing her story of survival, hope and compassion at the Spokane Convention Center Tuesday night.
Helga Melmed survived Auschwitz and travels the country to speak of her experience.
Melmed was 13 years old when she was first taken to a concentration camp. She’s one of only a few Holocaust survivors left and wants to continue being living proof of the horrors she and many other Jewish people experienced.
She said she made it through Auschwitz by befriending three other girls from different countries that she calls her camp sisters.
“We loved each other, we gave each other hope. We shared everything we owned, all our work, all our sleeping quarters,” Melmed said.
Melmed says they still stay in touch and she plans to visit them when she goes back to Germany for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
She hopes people will never forget what happened during the Holocaust and instead continue to learn from those hard times.
“It’s important that we love and respect each other. No matter where we are from, what we are, or anything like that,” Melmed said. “We were Jews, why were we so different?”
Melmed said while she has forgiven everyone involved in the Holocaust, she will never forget it.
Melmed will be speaking at the Spokane Convention Center at 7 p.m. Tuesday night.
Tickets are still available. No one will be turned away if they can’t afford a ticket.
If you need a ticket at a reduced price, click here.
COPYRIGHT 2025 BY KXLY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.
