Ms. Hilda Mantelmacher, a survivor of both the Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps, shared her story of survival during Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP) Weapon Systems Support's (WSS) Holocaust Remembrance Program, held in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.

The theme of this year's Holocaust Days of Remembrance was "Learning from the Holocaust: The Strength of the Human Spirit."

"It's the voices of the survivors that ensure the Holocaust will forever remain in the hearts and minds of people around the world," said Capt. Shane Brown, director, Nuclear Reactors Supply Chain Management, NAVSUP WSS, during opening remarks. "It is important that we listen and learn from courageous survivors such as Ms. Mantelmacher. She was there. She gives us insight into something we cannot imagine."

During her poignant remarks, Mantelmacher described what life was like before she was sent to Auschwitz.

"I had a normal life, like you have here," she remembered. "I went to school. I had a father, mother, grandparents, and I had a little brother. And I had friends."

She recalled how those friends turned against her once she was required to wear a yellow star that identified her as Jewish.

"It hurts me, even today, how they bullied me because I had to wear a yellow star," she said. "I never felt I was different until I had to wear the yellow star."

Mantelmacher recalled in tragic detail what life was like at Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen.

"In Bergen-Belsen I had nothing to do but take away the dead. I was not strong enough to carry the dead bodies, so I would drag them along the ground. As long as I could drag the bodies, I got a little food. If you couldn't do that, you didn't get food or water."

After her remarks, Mantelmacher showed an excerpt from "Memory of the Camps," a documentary about what Allied forces liberating Europe found as they entered German concentration camps, and took questions from the audience.

When asked if she had reconnected with any family, Mantelmacher replied that while she had lost her family during the Holocaust, she and her children have connected with others in a similar situation.

She added, "You make the best you can with life, because life is not easy and you do the best you can. I'm thankful every day when I get up and I have what I have...I'm very happy with everything I have."

A field activity of the Naval Supply Systems Command, NAVSUP WSS is the U.S. Navy's supply chain manager providing worldwide support to the aviation, surface ship, and submarine communities. NAVSUP WSS provides Navy, Marine Corps, joint and allied forces with products and services that deliver combat capability through logistics. There are more than 2,000 civilian and military personnel employed at its two Pennsylvania sites and one site in Virginia.

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