SANFORD -- Mrs. Renee Fink, a Holocaust survivor who was a child in hiding in Holland and whose parents perished in a concentration camp, was guest speaker for Central Carolina Community College's Second Annual Holocaust Remembrance Event held at the Dennis A. Wicker Civic Center.

Mrs. Fink's presentation was made available through The Center for Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Education of North Carolina, Inc.

"I'm a member of the last generation of survivors of the Holocaust, so I have an obligation to speak -- and it's a mission," said Mrs. Fink.

Mrs. Fink, of Pittsboro, said she is very deeply touched by people in the audience, and she hopes that people remember the Holocaust and other genocides to create awareness and sensitivity.

Mrs. Fink was born in 1937 in Holland to Jewish parents. It was 1940 when the Germans invaded Holland.

Thanks to the Dutch Underground, many Jewish children were able to go into hiding. As Mrs. Fink explains, one day -- in 1942 -- she was taken on the back of a stranger's bicycle to a new home.

As an only child, Mrs. Fink found herself living with the van der Brink family that included five brothers and three sisters. She would remain there until the end of World War II in 1945.

Mrs. Fink came to America in 1948. She did not talk about her experiences until after 1991, when she attended the first international conference of hidden children. Held in New York City, she found 1,600 hidden children who had survived. "It was a whole healing process and it's just ongoing," she said, adding that the group continues to meet each year.

Mrs. Fink noted that there is a strong connection between the Holocaust and bullying, and said we should all guard against injustice, indifference, intolerance, and ignorance.

In addition, the traveling exhibit "The Kindertransport Journey: Memory into History" was available in the lobby thanks to the North Carolina Council on the Holocaust.

"I feel so privileged to have been part of our second annual Holocaust Remembrance Day. It is all of our responsibility to 'bear witness' to the experiences of that era past," said Bianka Stumpf, CCCC History Instructor, who organized the visit. "We take more seriously the charge not to forget when we meet someone who knew that period's sacrifice and strength firsthand. Seeing photographs and documents exhibited underscore that same call.

"It worked well, too, that Mrs. Renee Fink, as a hidden child survivor, presented a perspective that differed from Mrs. Rebecca Hauser's, an Auschwitz survivor from our inaugural 2014 event. No two experiences are the same, but for both, the war's end was just the start of their healing."

Mrs. Stumpf believes CCCC, The Center for Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Education of North Carolina, Inc., and the North Carolina Council on the Holocaust's collaboration is more critical than ever as Holocaust survivors age and are lost. "My history students, as well as students in disciplines and classes like Early Childhood Education and Developmental Psychology, used Mrs. Fink's experience as a window to examine many important lessons for the 21st Century global citizen -- tolerance, yes, but its greater extensions of compassion and action," she said.

For more information on The Center for Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Education of North Carolina, visit the website www.holocaustspeakersbureau.org or contact Director Sharon Halperin at sharonhalperin88@gmail.com.

For more information on Central Carolina Community College, visit www.cccc.edu.