I want to tell you about two films I saw tonight, both of which are about survivors of the Holocaust. We've spoken before about the Holocaust – when Hitler persecuted and murdered people of the Jewish faith. I've also told you about the time, at an exhibition of Roman Vishniac's photographs, I saw a woman with a concentration camp tattoo on her forearm. Well, in tonight's film "Swimming in Auschwitz", I heard firsthand accounts of what it was like to be sent to a concentration camp. What I am about to tell you is hard for me to say, because it reveals to you what a horrific place this world can be. But all of the people I saw in tonight's films want you to know what happened. They've fought great pain in the form of terrifying memories to tell their stories. These survivors want us to know what happened, though, because they believe that it's their legacy to tell the world about their experiences in the hopes that something like the Holocaust will never happen again.

The Jewish women in "Swimming in Auschwitz", girls, were close to your ages of ten and thirteen years old, when they were told they and their families had 24 hours to pack only one suitcase each and prepare to leave their homes. They were then either sent to a temporary camp without running water or toilets and/or packed into cattle cars for a three-day nonstop train ride without food, water, or bathroom breaks. Once they arrived at Auschwitz they were put through a selection process: those able to work were spared while the old, too young, or infirm were sentenced to die. Only one in 10 survived the selection process. Many prisoners, from that moment on, never saw some of their family members again. The women were then ordered to strip naked in front of the German guards, had all their body hair shaved and were given bits of cast-off clothing to wear. Then they were assigned to barracks; 182 women to a barrack designed to stable 52 horses. They were given no mattresses and were so tightly packed they slept fit against one another like spoons.

There were ovens in the camps. The guards cruelly explained that that was how some people left the camps, as the smoke and ash coming from the ovens. All the women agreed that you either crumbled from the cruelty and inhumanity at the camp, or you survived. The title of the film comes from the action of one woman, who dared to run to the officer's swimming pool and swim a lap. It was things like that, defiance of authority, a bit of smuggled food, or an act of kindness that kept them going. They all agreed that somehow, someway each of them found a way, amid the horror, to persevere, stay sane and stay alive.

One survivor still has a ring given to her by another prisoner. The woman gave her the ring and told her to keep it. Knowing that it was forbidden to wear jewelry, she instructed her to hide the ring under her tongue. The prisoner, whose name she never knew, then died. She wears the ring to this day, the ring of "a friend without a name."

The defeat of Germany did not mean that their suffering immediately ended. Yes, the camps were liberated, but some people had lost most of their family and remained haunted by what they had experienced. Each of the women in "Swimming in Auschwitz" though, managed to rebuild their life. They truly survived.

The Holocaust survivors in "Portraits of Survival" also told their stories. Their experiences, not all of which involved concentration camps, were equally harrowing. Two of the men, when they were just young boys, close to your ages at the time, were sent here to the United States. They came without their parents through a program designed to remove Jewish children from the dangers of the war in Europe to the safety of the US. Imagine being alone in a country in which you did not speak a word of the language! Yet each of those people forged new lives.

Survivor Gela Percal perhaps best expressed the strength of all of the survivors when she said, "You cannot take away my humanity." To do so, she felt, would have allowed Hitler to win, something she could never let happen. Her attitude, though, has come at great personal cost. She, like all of the survivors interviewed, still feels the pain of loss and suffering. What amazes me is that they have not allowed that pain to prevent them from being loving, productive human beings.

On Tuesday, in addition to the films, two of the women from "Swimming in Auschwitz" and all of the people interviewed in "Portraits of Survival: Volume 2" were there in person. During the Q & A, I wish I could say I posed an intelligent, though-provoking question. Honestly, I was too moved by their stories to speak. It was enough for me to just be in their presence. But I honor them by telling you about their experiences, their strength and their grace in the face of inhuman adversity.