Photos by Bernard S. Little Erika (Neuman) Eckstut tells her story of surviving the Holocaust to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center community April 30.

Eckstut was guest speaker at the North Atlantic Regional Medical Command/Walter Reed Army Medical Center Holocaust Days of Remembrance command observance April 29 in Heaton Pavilionís Joel Auditorium.

Born in Znojmo, a town in the Czech region of Moravia, Eckstutís youthful appearance belies her octogenarian years. Her once blond hair is now radiant silver, but her face displays very little if any, lines of age. Aside from the change in hair color, Erika doesnít look much older now than she was in a nearly 70-year photograph used on her Jewish identification card, which she shares with the audiences during her discussions of the Holocaust. Her blue eyes are still piercing and captivating.

Eckstut said many of her presentations are given to children, whom she says she hopes will take her lessons to heart to improve the world.

Eckstutís father was a respected attorney and ardent Zionist who hoped to immigrate with his family to Palestine before World War II. She described herself as the ìtomboyî of the family, and her older sister Beatrice as ìthe good, beautiful one.î

In 1931, the family moved to Stanesti, a town in the Romanian province of Bukovina, where Eckstutís paternal grandparents lived, and she attended public and Hebrew schools. In 1937, members of the fascist Iron Guard tried to remove Eckstutís father from his position as the chief civil official in Stanesti, but a court cleared him of fabricated charges and he was eventually restored to his post.

In 1940, the Soviet Union occupied Bukovina. A year later, when Romania joined Nazi Germany in the war against the Soviet Union, the Soviets were driven from Stanesti. Mobs then carried out bloody attacks on the townís Jews. ìThey shot my uncle,î Eckstut recalled. She describes this as one of the worst nights of her life.

During the violence, Eckstut and her family fled to Czernowitz with help from the local police chief, but in the fall of 1941, the Neumans were forced to settle in the Czernowitz ghetto where living conditions were poor. The ghettos were often the stepping stones to the Nazi death camps. Eckstut said she had to steal bread for her family to eat.

She was almost caught on several occasions, but recalled a policeman and a beautiful opera singer at different times helped her return to her family.

The family was eventually separated when Eckstutís mother helped her German-looking daughters escape the ghetto. The young girls lived most of the next two years by their wits, hiding out in homes, woods or fields. Once they were arrested with false papers and went to jail. Eckstut recalled her sister contemplating suicide while in jail and tried to get her to do the same. But Eckstut said she had a strong desire to live through their nightmare. ìI [told her], ëI would like to live another day.í I always believed if I lived one more day, everything was going to be alright.î

The girls were eventually released from jail and reunited with their parents. Both girls married Czechoslovakian soldiers. Eckstut had two children and immigrated to the United States in 1960, three years after the death of her husband. She became a supervisor at a pathology lab. She now volunteers at the U.S. Holocaust Museum.

Despite everything that happened to her and her family, Eckstut said her father taught her she should ìnever, ever hate anybody. The most important thing you have to learn is to live with people, regardless of if theyíre white, black, pink, or whatever,î she says.

Eckstut said she also still admires people in the military, although she doesnít like war. ìI absolutely love America. Itís the best place.î

Col. Michael Doherty, director of safety health and environment at Walter Reed, said Eckstutís ìinspirational story epitomizes one of the Army values ó personal courage. ìShe stood up [in the face of adversity].

ìWhile Krystallnacht occurred 70 years ago this year, we know that manís inhumanity to man and societyís intolerance continues,î Doherty added. ìWe have so many examples of similar institutionalized repression, genocide and repression ó slavery and race discrimination in the United States to include lynch mobs; the trouble in Northern Ireland between the Catholics and Protestants; tribal riots and killings by both Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda and Burundi; ethnic cleansing in Bosnia by the Serbian government; Serbian repression of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo; persecution and killing in Sudan of Darfur residents by Janjaweed militia and Sudanese government forces; continued violence in Iraq among Sunni and Shiíite Muslims; and recent tribal violence and killings in Kenya and Zimbabwe due to the election returns.

ìWeíve taken an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States,î Doherty continued. ìIn doing so, we need to use our personal courage to ensure we protect the civil rights of our citizens.î

This yearís theme for Holocaust Days of Remembrance is ìDo Not Stand Silent: Remembering Kristallnacht 1938.î Kristallnacht, also known as ìCrystal Nightî and the ìNight of the Broken Glass,î occurred throughout Nazi Germany Nov. 9-10, 1938, when synagogues, Jewish businesses and homes were ransacked, and more than 30,000 Jews were rounded up and taken to concentration camps and others killed.