The Last Twins

-My name is Lusia Milch and I am a survivor of the Holocaust.

I was born in the small Polish town of Skalat.

In 1941, there were about 5,000 Jewish people in my hometown.

The Jewish community, the shtetl of Skalat, was vibrant.

My childhood was wonderful in every way.

I remember my mother's cooking as being the best in the world.

I was surrounded by family.

After Hitler came to power, everything changed for the Jews.

Jewish people became easy targets for hate as anti-Semitism grew.

Jewish stores were boycotted and stereotypes of Jews were promoted through propaganda.

I vividly remember the first day of the German occupation of my town.

On July 4, 1941, the Nazis entered Skalat.

The non-Jewish Ukrainian population, who had been our neighbors and our friends, turned on us and carried out a day of terror against the Jews in Skalat.

They grabbed innocent Jewish men from their homes and on the streets and viciously beat them in the town square.

We were ordered to wear a white armband with a Star of David on our right arm.

Every day, hundreds of Jewish men were ordered to work in the quarries.

Skalat became a ghetto filled with thousands of Jews from surrounding towns.

Jews were transported by truck and by train to the extermination camp, Belzec, where they were immediately murdered by gas.

700 of us survived the roundups.

My once-beautiful world was reduced to a cramped homemade bunker in the basement of our neighbor's house.

We slept there, three or people people in one bed.

We ate on the bed.

We planned escapes on the bed.

My life was reduced to whatever I could do on the bed.

The time came to leave our hiding place.

My mother explained we were going to a non-Jewish family who had promised to hide us in exchange for our possessions.

As we approached the house, we heard terrifying shootings coming from the ghetto.

[ Gunshots ] An action had started.

[ Man screams ] People everywhere were running.

We reached the house where we hoped to be safe and found ourselves standing in front of a man.

The man yelled, "What are you doing here?!

I want you out of here right now!"

"Have mercy on my children."

My mother turned her head quickly and stared at me.

My mother gives me a look with her eyes.

[ Voice breaking ] I read in her desperate look what she was telling me -- "Now is the time.

Leave us!

Run!

Save yourself!"

I had the strength of running from death.

And I find myself on the roof.

I took a look and I saw a hole.

"One way or the other, that's where I have to go."

And I pulled down the rest of the straw, leaving only one little place.

For what?

To breathe.

It doesn't take more than maybe 20 minutes or a half-hour -- A German comes in.

My nose was away from him maybe that much.

I felt, "If I don't breathe, he cannot know that there was somebody there," and he didn't.

It's dark and I am exhausted and I fall asleep.

After the night, I hear somebody coming up to the attic.

He comes up and he says, "Who is here?!

You were here when the Germans were inspecting?"

He had a heavy stick and he had an ax.

I said, "Listen to me.

I will go out and they will spot me right away.

And they will say, 'Where were you hiding?'

I will say, 'There was a nice man.

He let me hide in his attic.'"

He said, "But that's a lie."

I said, "But they will not believe that it wasn't like that."

I said, "Do me a favor.

Let me stay here the day.

I promise you, as soon as it gets dark, you can come up."

"I will kill you if you stay another minute after it gets dark."

From that day on, I was on my own.

By 1943, my mother, stepfather, and 4-year-old sister had been murdered, along with nearly all the members of my extended family and the Jewish community of Skalat.

For the next two years, I survived by pretending to be a Ukrainian peasant girl, living a false life in a tiny village until Liberation.

I made my way across Europe and sailed to New York, where I began my new life again as a Jew.

My message to you today is the following: Out of almost 10,000, only 160 Jews survived.

An ancient hatred, anti-Semitism, led to the murder of over 6 million Jews, including 1-1/2 million children.

I ask you today to listen to eyewitnesses such as myself, read, educate yourself, and pledge -- "Never again."

Do something before it is too late, or such events can happen again.