(inspiring music) (uplifting music) - Not only am I fortunate that I survive, but I am more fortunate that I was able to create a very meaningful life and significantly contribute to my community.

Why did I start talking?

I tell them- In my case, it was my personal tragedy.

The death of my daughter Naomi.

She always asked me to tell her my story and I never wanted to do it.

- [Narrator] Now, Irene Miller shares what she endured during the Holocaust through public talks and in her memoir.

- Writing the book was an emotional journey that I needed.

I wrote the book as me telling the story to Naomi that I didn't tell in her lifetime.

Speaking throughout the United States is a mission for me to let the world know what hate and prejudice did, and what hate and prejudice can do again, unless we learn from it.

My extended family was close to 100 members.

Not a single one of them survived.

When I speak, I'm their voice as well.

- [Narrator] Miller is among the thousands of Holocaust survivors who have made Michigan home.

- I came to live permanently in Michigan, 1970, but I have lived for brief periods of time too.

I married in Israel when I just turned 18 to a man from Detroit.

And originally, this is what brought us to Detroit.

- Here is Katie Chaka Parks, Director of Education at the Zekelman Holocaust Center.

She reflects on the lasting impact Holocaust survivors have had on Michigan's communities.

- After the war, about 100,000 Holocaust survivors come to the United States, and about 4,000 of them settle here in Michigan.

So they're actually the ones that are responsible for creating this entire museum.

They really wanted to be able to memorialize their loved ones that were murdered, and all the experiences that they had had.

Before the war, I mean, Michigan had a very thriving Jewish community.

We always have.

We were very integral even during the Holocaust, trying to send aid and help to those in Europe.

And so for many people, they knew that coming to Michigan, they would have help when they came here afterwards.

- The Zekelman Holocaust Center keeps survivor voices alive through public talks by survivors themselves, second generation speakers, and educational programs that pass their stories on to future generations.

Irene Miller is one of those survivors who speaks at the center to share her story.

- When I tell my story, I convey the emotions that comes with it.

We started hearing that Soviet soldier were coming in the middle of the night taking away all the young men.

So my mother took the train to the city where dad worked to warn him not to come back until he hears from her, but she missed the last train coming back to us.

And that night, when my sister and I were alone, Soviet soldier kicked in the door of the cabins.

They gave us a few minutes to scoop up whatever we could, and they marched just to a train station, where there was a long line of kettle cars, and they would shove in as many people as they could in each of those box cars.

This was meant for transportation of cows, horses, and so on.

No light, no windows.

Once a day, they will let everyone under the train to relieve themselves.

Everyone goes simultaneously.

Doesn't take long, you forget about the notion of privacy.

Our food was most of the time a cup of soup for the day.

That was it.

We were on that train.

Somewhere between six and eight weeks with the doors closed.

They delivered us to a labor camp in the Siberian Taiga.

Bears would come to the door front.

At night, we heard Siberians wolf howling.

If you were outside, any part of your skin exposed wouldn't take more than a few minutes, it would get frostbitten.

We didn't have clothing for that kind of a climate.

In Uzbekistan, we almost starved to death.

My mother would go into the field, pick up anything that was grown wildly, boil it, drink it first herself to see how it affected.

If she was okay, she would give it to us as well.

I never thought of a diet, never.

And you know, if anything, it's difficult for me to say what powers we are born with of, you know, what contributes to survival as opposed to not.

But there one thing that I feel helped me, not just in the Holocaust, but in difficulties and traumatic difficulties in lives that are had after the Holocaust.

In the most difficult situations, find one grain of positivity, water it, nurture it, and clink to it.

There is not a situation, no matter how painful it is, that you cannot find one little grain of something.

Only 10% of Jewish children survived.

Almost all of them gone by now, but those of us who survived become the voices of those who didn't live to tell their story.

- [Narrator] Chaka Parks explains sharing survivor stories isn't just about preserving history, It's about helping people understand the real human costs of hate, and why remembrance is essential to preventing it from ever happening again.

- We always say that when you hear a survivor's testimony, you become witness to that testimony as well.

When you hear next generation speakers and survivors talk, you take those stories and you pay it forward by telling someone about your experience and what you learned.

Because it's that educational component that I think is so important that makes us a better community, a better place to live, that we all understand the humanity in one another.