OBERLIN, Ohio — At 18-months-old, Carol Wilner, along with her family, was captured and sent to a Nazi labor camp.
Knowing what happened to babies who end up in these camps, her family did their best to hide her to keep her safe from the horrific fate that would have waited for her.
Wilner has spoke to smaller groups about her and her family's experience before, but never to a crowd quite as big as the one at Sunday's Holocaust Remembrance Day at Oberlin College.
"This presentation was probably the most difficult of all because I had to do some real digging into my soul."
Digging deep into her soul is what she did.
"Men, women, children, the old and the sick were taken to a nearby forest and executed. The Nazi's established a death camp that was called 'Balzec' and in those round ups thousands of Jews were sent there to be murdered on arrival."
She recalled how she was hid in a crawl space to avoid detention from the guards at the camp. One day, her mom was holding her when German soldiers busted into to her barracks. Baby Carol was pushed under the bed, but a German Shepperd sniffed her out. Carol was face to face with a Nazi guard, but miraculously, the guard walked out and never turned her in.
"I think with that solider, he connected with me and I knew enough to connect with him. Even children know what they have to do to survive."
Wilner's granddaughter Emily Mandell is a graduate of Oberlin's Conservatory. She told 3News that hearing hear grandmother speak about her experience made her emotional, "It was intense. I was just shaking the whole time. I was tensing up some parts of the time. I knew some parts of the story but we hadn't talked about everything in detail."
The details are horrifying. A brother born in captivity never to be seen again. Losing relatives. And at 83-years-old, she says its time to share her story
"What I was remembering wasn't just events, it was the feeling. I knew I was in danger at all times even as a baby ."
Here at Oberlin College, there is a display called "Violins of Hope." Some of the violins from the collection were used by survivors and they were forced to play them as Jews were escorted to their deaths.
Violins to symbolize the tragedy that unfolded and the unrelenting hope for better days ahead.
