Fort Huachuca, Arizona - Lily Brull was only 10 years old when her family had to leave everything they knew behind them to escape the German soldiers in Antwerp, Belgium, during World War II.
"On May 10, 1940, Germany attacked Holland, Luxembourg and Belgium," Brull said. "It was early in the morning, [and] I heard what sounded like barrels overhead. I can still hear the sound.
"Formations of bombers coming over our building and dropping bombs and that's when you realized that you had to be lucky to survive among other things. Some buildings were hit and some were not, and we were not for some reason. You begin to believe in miracles."
Brull shared her story with instructors at the Non-Commissioned Officers Academy on Thursday. She talked of the many close calls her family encountered while escaping to France where they would eventually leave with visas to the United States as refugees.
"It took weeks and weeks under bombs and no transportation, and going in different directions, with the Germans right behind us," Brull said. The German soldiers were entering France right as we left.
"What I missed was my extended family, my grandparents on both sides, my aunts and uncles, cousins, who were my best friends," she added. "We were a very close-knit family and a very big one. And we spent all our time together and having to leave all of them, that was the worst of it. A lot of them were killed in the camps and whomever we saw had gone back to Belgium after the war."
Sgt. 1st Class David Todman, NCOA, said it is important to hold such events for today's Soldiers, "because it brings that common understanding across the military so that everybody understands the commitments that were given for us and that everybody is knowledgeable about different events and the different sacrifices that were made, that make it possible for us to be where we are."
"When we went back, there were a lot of bombed buildings; my mom wanted to see who was left of the family," Brull said. "There were housing and food shortages, everyone was depressed, and they had to start making a living again. It took years and years, all over Europe."
She spoke of what she thought was the most important lesson to be learned from such a tragedy.
"What I'd like people to know is that when Hitler decided to kill all the Jews, and nobody tried to stop it and it was something I could not understand and now I see in the Middle East that the Muslims are trying to kill all the Christians and what I see is that nobody learned a lesson," Brull said. "You have to stop this, otherwise you end up with a horrible war and now it's going to be an atomic war and millions of people murdered."
"I think I am definitely of the school of thought that if we don't remember our history we're doomed to repeat it and something so horrible as the Holocaust," said Sgt. 1st Class Alexander Decamp, NCOA. "Definitely we need a reminder that humans are capable of doing something this bad to reengage that history; in order to not repeat it."
This year's national theme for the Holocaust Remembrance Day/Days of Remembrance Observance was Learning from the Holocaust: Choosing to Act.
Fort Huachuca's observance event was held at Fitch Auditorium in Alvarado Hall and included a short video, "Stories of Rescue," from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and a proclamation reading from City of Sierra Vista Mayor Frederick Mueller. This year's guest speaker was Rabbi Chaplain (Col.) Bonnie Koppell, 807th Medical Command, and Sgt. Joshua Levy, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence, read an excerpt from "Half a Century Later." The observance also included a memorial candle lighting by the Holocaust survivors, their escorts and Col. Thomas A. Boone, Fort Huachuca's garrison commander, a poem reading from Lt. Col. Hans Joerg Trossen, chief German liaison officer, USAICoE, and the Mourner's Kaddish read by survivor Pawel Lichter.
The Holocaust survivors group who attended the event Thursday were from Tucson and are a part of the Jewish Family and Children's Services. Annique Dveirin, Lily Brull, Pawel Lichter, Theresa Dulgov and Wanda Wolosky made the trip to share their stories.
The public was invited to attend all of the events, which were held to remind participants about the Holocaust. Each of the survivors hosted an hour-long session with various military groups around the installation where they shared their personal story and took questions.
Earlier in the week, two free movie screenings were held at the Cochise Theater. On Tuesday, "Secrets of the Dead: Escape from Auschwitz," and on Wednesday, "Frontline: Memory of the Camps," were shown.
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