ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. - Holocaust survivor Robert Behr walked to the front of the stage and looked out at the crowd.

"I want everyone with brown eyes to stand up," he said.

About 50 students stood up.

"All of the people who are standing, you are bad people," he said. "You don't have the same rights as those with blue eyes," he told them. "See, that is how a dictatorship works. A dictatorship doesn't ask you how or why, they just tell you [that] you are bad people...You can change your religion, but you can't change your blood."

Behr was the guest speaker at Aberdeen Proving Ground's 2014 Holocaust Memorial Event April 30 at the APG North (Aberdeen) post theater. He shared his story of surviving the Holocaust with APG Soldiers, civilians and more than 500 local school students and faculty from across Harford County.

Team APG and U.S. Army Research Laboratory's (ARL) theme for this year's ceremony was "Confronting the Holocaust: American Responses," - an examination of examining how countries responded to the tragedy. ARL has hosted the event for more than 15 years.

The ceremony was led with a benediction by Col. Jonas Vogelhut from PEO C3T and the singing of the national anthem by Courtney White of ATEC.

Six students from Bel Air Middle School--Will Solomon, Sierra Smith, Amanda Parkinson, Tyler Hamilton, Abby Lozada and Ryan Griffin--participated in a candle lighting ceremony honoring the six million Jews who lost their lives.

Born in Berlin, Germany, Behr and his family became subject to Adolf Hitler's Nuremburg Laws and other anti-Semitic legislation in 1933. In 1942, after the family was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, Behr worked at the camp transporting bodies for burial, laying railroad tracks to and from the camp and working in the camp's kitchen until it was liberated by the Soviet Army on May 5, 1945.

After immigrating to the United States in 1947, Behr enlisted in the U.S. Army and was transferred to Berlin where he interrogated former Nazi personnel. He has since served in the U.S. Air Force civil service as an intelligence officer and as an adjunct professor at Sinclair College. He has a bachelor's and a master's degree in Modern European History.

"The question comes up, "What keeps you going?" Behr said. "What makes you get up every morning and do the best you can under the circumstances which we're living? I'll give it to you in one word: Hope."

Behr added that he tells his story to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive.

"I think the world--you--have a right to know what was going on," he said. "I'm a survivor, and all of us--the few people who survived the Nazi regime--we're getting older. I'm standing here at 92 years of age and talking to you. Why am I doing this? I could be at home relaxing. No, I come here to talk because we will not be here much longer, and it is you who has to carry on the mission of justice in this world."

"Remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust is very important," said ARL Director Dr. Thomas Russell. "The Holocaust survivors won't be with us much longer, so hearing their stories is very important because we can't allow this to ever happen again in our society. We all have the opportunity to make a difference. We all have the opportunity to ensure that this doesn't happen again and to step up when something does happen."

"I [felt] very honored to be in his presence and to light the candles at the ceremony," said Tyler Hamilton, a participant in the candle lighting ceremony. "He [Behr] has a really powerful story."

To learn more about the Holocaust, visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website at http://www.ushmm.org/remember/office-of-survivor-affairs/survivor-volunteer/bob-behr.

Behr has been a volunteer at the museum since 2001.