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Holocaust Remembrance Day marked on the Upper East Side: "I think we have to be vigilant"

By
Lisa Rozner
Lisa Rozner
Lisa Rozner joined CBS News New York in 2017. She covers a wide range of stories.
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Lisa Rozner

/ CBS New York

Monday marks Yom HaShoah, known as Holocaust Remembrance Day. 

It is customary to honor the day by hearing a survivor's story. 

Monday afternoon, customers at Cafe Arrone on the Upper East Side were captivated by Adrienne Petrook. Born in 1941, she survived World War II with the help of her non-Jewish aunt who hid her with a friend. 

"Before the war, when I was turning 1, she gave away valuables like flour and sugar because she wanted me to have this doll," Petrook said. She still has the doll that was given to her. 

Petrook's father was forced into a labor camp, but escaped. 

"When he escaped from the forced labor camp, he hid in the elevator shaft until after the war," Petrook said. 

Eventually, he was able to reunite with Petrook and her mother. In Europe, Petrook practiced Catholicism. She didn't learn she was Jewish until her family immigrated to Forest Hills when she was 9. After six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, her parents did not want her growing up wearing a Jewish star. 

"I'm proud to be Jewish, and I'm especially happy to go around telling my stories," Petrook said. "I think we have to be vigilant."

Petrook is set to share her story at another Manhattan coffee shop Tuesday.  

This comes as Holocaust survival charity The Blue Card says the number of survivors are dwindling. It's already down 11% from last year. The Blue Card estimates there are an 196,000 Jewish Holocaust survivors alive globally, down from 220,000 estimated in January of last year. 

"My great grandparents were murdered in Auschwitz. My family, my grandparents survived by hiding in a forest under terrible circumstances, and my mother and my aunt were hidden children," said Tamar Major of the Yad Vashem USA Foundation. "My mother passed away a year ago, and it's up to us now ... the Holocaust started with slogans and with lies, and it led to terrible things. And I don't have a magic bullet for fighting antisemitism, but this is certainly one piece of it. 

"We hope that their stories will engender compassion and really help people see why nobody should be discriminated against," Georgi Goldman of The Blue Card said. 

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