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Holocaust victims, survivors honored at Pittsburgh's Walk to Remember

PITTSBURGH — Victims and survivors of the Holocaust were honored in Pittsburgh at the third annual Walk to Remember on Sunday.

Those who survived were honored in Squirrel Hill, and two of them told Channel 11's Lori Houy their story.

"Yesterday, it was lightning. I know by nature it's lightning, but at the same time, I thought it was the bombs coming," said Holocaust survivor Francine Gelernter.

Gelernter, 87, is still haunted decades later. When she was just little girl in Lithuania, her family was forced to pack and told only that they were being relocated.

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"We were put in three trains, packed in worse than animals. We arrived at the concentration camp. They sent us to Auschwitz, but there was no room," Gelernter said.

"I was 12, 13 ,14 during the years of the Holocaust," said Holocaust survivor Albert Farhy.

Farhy just turned 90 years old, but he vividly remembers his childhood in Bulgaria.

"I remember the coming of the German army in Bulgaria, the mobilization of all the Jewish males between 20 and 40 years old," Farhy said.

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People participated in the Walk to Remember to pay tribute to these and other survivors and remember the lives changed by anti-Semitism.

They started at the Keeping Tabs glass block sculpture, then walked the perimeter around the Community Day School six times to memorialize the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust.

These survivors are concerned about the future.

"I am disappointed people have not learned the lesson of the Holocaust," Farhy said.

"I would like to see hatred disappear," Gelernter said.

The money raised during Sunday's walk will fund Holocaust education at the Community Day School as well as youth-focused outreach across the Pittsburgh area.