Three Holocaust survivors shared their stories with over 500 Grand Island Senior High freshmen on Wednesday.

Dr. Fred Kader and Kitty Williams grew up in different countries, but they both lived through what the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum calls "the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime."

Kader was only four years old when he missed the train to Auschwitz the first time. He would miss two more before the war was over, and told students that's why he doesn't mind if he's late for things even today. It would be years until he was able to piece together how he, as one of Europe's "Hidden Children" managed to survive when his entire immediate family did not, but he said it's a story he's eager to share today.

"It just changes you," he said. "If it doesn't change you, you've missed the boat, you've missed the train in becoming a human being. As I talk now to the kids it just further reinforces what I've done and what I've become, and I'm still learning about myself."

Kader said a surviving relative later told him about that first train. He was with his mother who knew they were destined for Auschwitz, so she told her blonde-haired, blue-eyed son to walk out of the station. His "Aryan" looks saved his life, and he was eventually found wandering the streets by a nun. She took him to a hiding place, but the hiding place was discovered, and he was soon headed for Auschwitz again.

That second train was delayed because people, including Kader's uncle, kept jumping off the train to escape. Kader and several other children were found at a deportation camp by a group of orphans. The woman who was caring for the orphans, Mrs. Blum, talked the guards into letting them all go together, and Kader missed the train again. He would live in the Wezenbwek orphanage until the war was over. The Nazis would arrive one more time to try and take the Wezenbwek children to the concentration camp, but the orphanage had been cleared out the night before. Kader missed his third train.

He ended up with relatives in Canada, and eventually came to the U.S. Influenced by his ordeal and the orphanage, Kader became a pediatric neurologist, and lives in Omaha today. Although it wasn't very many years ago that he was finally able to learn through books, records, and reunions with other Wezenbwek children just how he was able to survive, Kader says it's helpful to talk about it both for him and his listeners.

"The more you talk and the more it registers in your mind on what you're doing, and it changes you to appreciate what you say because it's so much more meaningful for the young people," he said.

Just down the hall from where Kader shared his story with some of GISH's freshmen, Kitty Williams told more students about her journey.

Williams, a native of Hungary, now lives in Council Bluffs. She and her father were loaded onto a train bound for Auschwitz. They were packed in and the journey took what seemed like days.

"By then we lost our modesty," she said. "At first I remember people holding up a sheet when somebody had to go to the bathroom. We even lost that. It's amazing we didn't go just mad, and in Auschwitz, some people did," she said.

They finally arrived and were greeted by the infamous Auschwitz gate: "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Makes One Free). Williams said some people found hope in the sign, believing they wouldn't be killed because the Nazis wanted them for labor. She told students that she knew people in their car had died on the way, but she didn't look back to see them. She and her father were separated, and she never saw him again. Williams would eventually be taken from Auschwitz and would spend the rest of the war in labor camps.

Williams says she considers herself lucky as she and five siblings survived, but they lost most of their extended family.

"I have no aunts, uncles," she said. "I think I have maybe two cousins out of about thirty at least, but I myself was very fortunate."

She said she likes being able to tell people about her experiences.

"It's a great satisfaction," she said. "My only regret is that I didn't start sooner when I was younger and [had] more energy, but I will do my best because I feel it's very important."

Williams came to the United States in 1947. She said she's gone back to Hungary and to Auschwitz several times, but Europe will never be the same.

"It's like walking in a cemetery - all of Europe," she said.

Williams said there's only one thing she wants students to take away from their survival stories: "Don't ever by prejudiced, because that's where I think it all starts."

The speakers were able to come to GISH through the classroom mini-grant program provided by the Grand Island Education Foundation.