Concentration camp survivor Isabelle Choko has kept her story to herself for decades. She says “I had only one solution in front of me: It was to live. Live, love, work, have children, have joy in my life … because it is only those sentiments that allow you to survive.” Choko kept it to herself because she wanted to be happy.

Choko was born in Lodz, Poland in 1928, at age 11 she was sent to live in a ghetto. Ghettos are separated areas from the city for the Jews to live. Living conditionings were unbearable. Jews were crowded in these areas where they were starved and exposed to diseases caused by insanitation. Isabelle and her family were transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland. Choko was the only person in her family to escape.

Choko along with 200 other Holocaust survivors are marking the 70th Anniversary of the liberation from Auschwitz.

Above Isabelle Choko holds a picture of her classmates.

By Kendra Yanak