Auschwitz survivor to speak at Days of Remembrance ceremony

An event called Days of Remembrance, sponsored by the Burbank Human Relations Council, will be held on Tuesday, featuring Holocaust survivor Erika Jacoby.

Now in its 33rd year, the event brings together members of churches, synagogues and mosques in Burbank to remember those who lost their lives during the Holocaust, Armenian Genocide and other atrocities throughout history.

Jacoby, 89, of Valley Village, said she plans to tell those in attendance her story about how she, her brother and mother survived the Nazi occupation of their home country of Hungary.

She was 15 years old when the Germans invaded Hungary and began deporting Jews to various concentration camps. Her father and younger brother were sent to forced-labor camps while Jacoby, her older brother and her mother where sent to Auschwitz.

“We fortunately made it through,” Jacoby said, adding that she weighed about 60 pounds when she was liberated. “I could say something simple, like we had God’s help, but I don’t think he had great intervention in it. It was just, I suppose, luck and some special strength that we had.”

Jacoby said she wants the people who hear her and other survivors’ stories to understand and learn about what happened in the past so it does not happen again.

Days of Remembrance will be held at 7:30 p.m. at Burbank Temple Emanu El on 1302 N. Glenoaks Blvd.

anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com

Twitter: @acocarpio