Local officials and Jewish leaders marked the 70th anniversary Thursday of the liberation of concentration camps following the end of World War II in 1945. Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown and Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz issued a proclamation in remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust at Buffalo City Hall. On hand was a Williamsville resident who was just 12 years old when she went into hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam.
"Sofia" was separated from her parents and lived with families who kept her hidden for two years until someone gave her up, sending her to a concentration camp where she stayed until the war came to a close. She says it is important to remember the Holocaust to keep history from repeating itself.
"When I talk at schools I tell my students they found us on 9/11," Sofia said. "We were always protected between two oceans."
Thursday's ceremony included a candle lighting to honor the six million Jews killed by the Nazis during World War II.
"This is an opportunity for us to come together and remember those atrocities, remember that terrible time in the history of the world, and to stand up and say, in the face of atrocities on our time and going forward in the future, never again," Brown said.
