DANIA BEACH, Fla. — International Holocaust Remembrance Day honors the 6 million Jews and millions of others murdered by the Nazi regime.

Designated by the United Nations, the day marks the anniversary of the 1945 liberation of Auschwitz, the largest Nazi concentration and death camp.

“Before the war, of course I was young, I was very spoiled and loved,” said Holocaust survivor Stella Sonnenschein. “Love carried me through when I had difficult years.”

Sonnenschein was only five-years-old when her life changed in Poland.

Grabbing only her favorite toy, a doll, she was separated from her family and lived under a false identity with four different Polish families who helped her survive.

“Out of nowhere the war started,” she said. “I saw the planes coming and throwing bombs.”

Sonnenschein lost her brother and father in the war. Only her mother survived.

They were reunited after the war and in 1950, Sonnenschein left Poland for good.

Holocaust Remembrance Day is every day for Sonnenschein, and for the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center in Dania Beach.

For more than 40 years the center has made it its mission to never forget, showcasing survivor stories and their emotional and heartbreaking photos and what they want the world to know.

“Days like today really, really, really emphatically in such a way mark the importance of remembrance,” said Rositta Ehrlich Keningsberg with the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center.

For Sonnenschein, who has endured so much tragedy and seen and heard things no child should, she says even in the midst of death and despair, she encountered kind people with good hearts, and left us with this message:

“To me, if you change one life, that’s already good, but I wish I could change the whole world to be loving and understanding and eliminate the hatred.”

Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.