Nina Katz was only 12 years old when the Nazi regime marched into Poland and tore her away from her family.
"My father, mother, and 6-year-old sister were sent to the Auschwitz camp, while I was sent to a labor camp," Katz said. "Since I was fully grown I could be used for slave labor, while my parents were useless because they had a small child. I tried to run after them, but I was hit over the head and by the time I got up they were gone."
Katz will share her personal saga of the Holocaust and her many contributions to the community today at 1 p.m. in the Rose Theatre.
Shortly after her time in a labor camp, Katz was moved to a concentration camp.
"The concentration camp was not much change from a labor camp, there was still starving, slaving and screaming, but we had barbed wires and tighter security," Katz said.
When the camp was liberated, Katz, 18 was suffering from many ailments, including malnutrition, and was lying among corpses.
"We were walking skeletons," Katz said. "It is a wonder I was found, it must have been an angel."
Of the 3,000 in her camp, only 800 survived. Those survivors then went to hospitals for treatment.
"They took us to hospitals to build us up and bring us back to life," Katz said.Even after her tragedy, Katz knew she had to start over and rebuild her life.She went back to Poland to find her family and see who had survived. Unfortunately, she said, she found no one. Katz later learned her family had been killed shortly after their separation.
However, one person found her, a person that had been her childhood sweetheart and would become her lifelong companion.
Katz said her childhood friend, Morris Katz, told her that he knew she was alive.
"He said he just had a premonition that I was waiting at the station. I had searched for him but had heard he had died, but he found me," Katz said. "I told him I thought he had died and he replied, he wouldn't do a stupid thing like that."
Nina and Morris spent the next four years in a displaced persons camp, until they got in touch with Morris's uncle in Memphis.
"Morris had given a note with his uncle's information on it to a young American soldier sitting on a tank," Katz said. "The soldier took enough interest to give the note to the U.S. Intelligence Agency, which finally got to his uncle, who then contacted us."
Nina and Morris got married and left the displaced persons camp to create a new life in America.
Since her arrival, Katz has used her experience to enrich other lives and promote a sense of community among different people.
Among her many achievements, Katz helped establish the Memphis Literacy Council as the director of public relations and regional director and has traveled across the country to rid communities of illiteracy.
"When I was 10-years-old my father laid a book in my lap and said, 'Since we live in Poland we don't travel, so you read to travel,'" Katz said. "Everyone is entitled to his education."
Many University of Memphis professors think Katz's message is an important one for students to hear and learn from.
"It is important to hear her speak, not only for what she has been through, but for what we about to go through in the future, lots of challenges and hatred in the world," said David Patterson, Bornblum Chair of Excellence in Judaic Studies. "Nina represents a voice that opposes this hatred of anyone and has seen human life come under murderous assault."
Some U of M students also think attending the event is pertinent to make more informed choices in the future.
"It is relevant now to hear and catch a glimpse of what it is actually like in a war zone, so we can make an intelligent decision if we want to fight in war now or put others in that situation," said Chris Cosby, junior biology major.
Other students are looking forward to hearing a personal account of a tragic historic event.
"It is always interesting to hear other people's stories of things we cannot be present for and hearing their story is better than reading it in a textbook," said Genishia Chuck, junior pre-nursing major. "The person speaking can lend more emotion and can bring out more feeling in the facts."
Katz has been involved in community work and received such honors as the Humanitarian award from National Conference of Community Injustice, the Heroism Award from the Women of Achievement and the prestigious Sequoia Literacy Award.
Katz said some people ask her how she can be so giving and loving when she has suffered the worst persecution.
"Hitler did not win with me because I told myself I was going to be the best I was going to be."
