Isabelle Choko: “I wish to dedicate my story to all the young people in the world. Let them be vigilant. May they never allow hate, cruelty, or rejection of others to intrude upon their lives”. I was born in Lodz. Poland where, at the age of eleven, my family was moved into the ghetto. Included in my portrait is a photo of the ghetto group. From there I was taken to Auschwitz. My parents. both of whom were pharmacists. were affluent. They owned several pharmacies in Lodz. My father died of deprivation and illness in the ghetto. My mother and I survived working in a work camp for the railroad. I remember so well how difficult it was for the Hungarian Jews who had been living such good lives. Suddenly, Hitler decided to decimate the population and they could not cope. They made it so much harder for those of us who had been there for years to keep going. My mother died only a month before our liberation. I had been quite ill before the liberation, and. once I was free. a nurse with the British army, Sister Susanne Spender. found me and nursed me back to health. I was sent to Sweden for recovery. I had an uncle who had moved to Paris prior to the war. and I left Sweden to live with him. I attended school while I was there and met my husband when I was only seventeen years old. When I was eighteen. we married. Many years later. I met Sister Spender and she fell to her knees to thank God that I had survived. It wasn't until fifteen years ago that I began to tell my story. Now I give testimony to children and adults in France. Recently I was the subject of an art show by an Israeli artist in Hannover. Germany. The show compared my life with the life of a German woman who lived near Bergen-Belsen while I was imprisoned there. Meeting this woman was quite traumatic for me. I am currently writing a book to be published in France entitled My Two Lives. My first life ended in Bergen-Belsen and the second is the one I have lived since. Once I was teaching a group of adults and sharing my experience of the Holocaust. I said, "I was born at the wrong time at the wrong place." In response a black man said to me. "No. you were born at the right time and the right place so that you could be here to do testimony to us today."