Holocaust survivor speaks to Airmen, students Published April 16, 2010 By Staff Sgt. Joel Mease 501st Combat Support Wing Public Affairs RAF ALCONBURY, United Kingdom -- A surviving member of the Holocaust spoke to Airmen and students at RAF Alconbury High School April 7 about lessons learned from the World War II during the annual remembrance week. Susan Pollack, a survivor from one of the worse-known acts of genocide in human history, said she believed it's critical to retell her story so those in future generations don't have to relive the nightmare she and her family endured. "It's not an easy task to relive those horrible times, but it's important to remember those who didn't survive," Mrs. Pollack said. "I do it for the 50 of my own family members who didn't survive. I do it for the future generation of kids as a warning sign that even the smallest evil has the potential to be an unstoppable inferno." While she experienced a great evil, she said she has found there is much good in the world as she expressed her thanks to the men and women who fought evil then and now. "I am very appreciative to be allowed to live - to the British Army who saved my husband and the American Army who liberated me. (It) gives me a strong feeling of gratitude of the sacrifice servicemen had made. How can we ever repay your kindness?" she said. "What I witnessed shaped my life, and this is my contribution to be allowed to live in a world that is so beautiful and needs to be preserved." The thoughts of remembering what happened and what could happen again in the future could give someone who experienced trying times great pause. However, Mrs. Pollack said she believed the future is in great hands. "It gives me assurance, that we have protectors in a world that has changed so much; it overwhelms all the experiences I had as a child," she said. "I am an optimist the world is improving, not to say there are not dangers that still exist." For one Airmen, who helped in the committee bring her to Alconbury, was especially moved by her talk. "I was surprised at how thankful she was when she called us as protectors," Airman 1st Class Anthony Kies, 423rd Air Base Squadron, said. "For some someone who went through so much that she singled us out as 'protectors' is very satisfying for me to serve as an Airman."