LEXINGTON, Ky. — Thursday marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day and a Kentucky survivor recalls her childhood, a day she’ll never forget when her father returned to the concentration camp. 

What You Need To Know

  • Thursday marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day

  • Lexington woman recalls memories of growing up in a small village in Germany

  • She said they imprisoned her grandfather and father at one of the first concentration camps

  • She documented her journey in a book called “Ordinary People, Turbulent Times”

“Since I was born in [19]31, Hitler came into power [19]33, so almost my entire young childhood was spent under the Hitler age and it was part of our life right from the time he came to power. Things immediately began to happen,” Alice Goldstein said.

She described how the Nazis gradually gained power.

“Well, I mean, we were, I think, a very normal example of what happens when a government begins to delegate a segment of the population,” Goldstein said.

That power peaked, leading to what’s called Kristallnacht, the two nights in November 1938 known as the Night of Broken Glass.

“We were isolated, we became pariahs in the community,” Goldstein said. “Eventually, my father’s store was closed during Kristallnacht, of course, it was vandalized. He was sent to Dachau, and it was, we just became non-persons and undesirables in the village.”

The Nazis established Dachau, one of the first concentration camps.

“My grandfather came home within a week, cause the Nazis said if you’re that old you don’t need to be incarcerated and my father came home after about 6 weeks and I remember him coming home,” Goldstein said. “He, his head was completely shaved and I don’t think I’ll ever forget the haunted look he had on his face when he came home from that experience.”

Eventually, her family got passports to get out of Germany.

“I came in August 28, 1939, which was just three days before the war began,” Goldstein said. “Our ship was the last passenger line to leave on schedule from Germany.”

They fled to America.

“I’ve always been eerily amazed that we made it and I don’t know who to thank for that but it was pretty special,” Goldstein said.

And they started a new life from the bottom up. Her father became a butler and her mother a caretaker.

Alice has documented her journey, initially to share the stories with her grandchildren, that turned into a published book called “Ordinary People, Turbulent Times.”

She also speaks in classrooms, educating students and adults, sharing lessons from her experience.