Holocaust survivor Stephen Berger came to the Binghamton University campus on Sunday to talk to students about his experiences.

During the 1930s and 1940s, Germany’s National Socialist (Nazi) Party carried out a systematic genocide of millions of Europe’s Jews and many other peoples the Nazi’s considered “undesirable.” The vast majority of those who were killed by the Nazis died in concentration camps set up for the purpose of conducting efficient mass murder.

Hillel at Binghamton brought Berger to campus to help commemorate Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, a day set aside to remember those the Nazis killed and tormented.

More than 100 students, faculty and community members gathered at 8 p.m. in room 258 of the Fine Arts Building to hear Berger speak of his experiences.

“It’s not an easy story to tell,” Berger said. “It’s a difficult story, but history is important. We can learn much from history.”

Berger, a member of the Queensborough Community College Holocaust Resource Center Speaker’s Bureau, grew up in Hungary and spent the later years of World War II in concentration and labor camps.

In 1944, the German army occupied Hungary, closed the Jewish high school Berger attended, ordered all Jews to wear a yellow Star of David in public for identification purposes and forbade them from using public transportation. Soon after, Berger and his family were forced to move into a ghetto in the city of Debrecen, Hungary.

The Schutzstaffel (SS), the Nazi force that committed enumerable crimes against humanity during World World II, later arrived at his ghetto.

“I’m not going to describe what happened there, because I want you to sleep at night,” he told the audience.

Berger and others in the ghetto were packed into trains and locked inside for almost four days — with no room to sit and no water or food — as they were transported to a concentration camp in Strasshof, Germany. Several committed suicide on the train.

According to Berger, the train was meant to go to Auschwitz, the largest Nazi death camp. For reasons he was never told, it the train was rerouted. Because he possessed mechanical skills, Berger was later sent from Strasshof to a forced labor camp in Vienna, Austria where he lived in constant hunger and fear for the remainder of World War II.

“You work until you have no more energy to work, or until you get sick,” he said as he described the camp. “When that happens, that is the end of your life.”

In April 1945, the fighting between the Germans and the Soviet Union reached Vienna, and his labor camp was liberated. Berger returned to Hungary to find that 26 of his family members had been killed by Nazis, many of them in death camps in which thousands were killed per day.

“How can a normal human mind understand this?” Berger asked. “This happened in the 20th century, in the center of so–called cultured Europe. Behind every one of those numbers there is a human being, just like you.”

He ended his speech with three words, “I love you.”

Katie Sokol, a freshman majoring in biology, said Berger’s speech was inspirational.

“I was mesmerized by how powerful and strong he is, a survivor, his beautiful outlook on the world and how much he cares about his family and the future generation,” she said.

Berger’s story was followed by a musical performance by Kaskeset, Binghamton’s Jewish a cappella group, and a traditional candle lighting ceremony in memory of Holocaust victims. It concluded after remarks from rabbis from the local community.

Before offering a final prayer for the departed, Rabbi Shalom Kantor from Hillel at Binghamton spoke to the Jewish community.

“Those who tried to destroy us failed, and here we are, standing strong,” he said. “Perhaps God is somehow present as we tell and listen to over and over again the stories of those who survived — the miracles. Those memories define us.”

The annual Hillel event was co-chaired this year by Stephen Bedik, a freshman majoring in accounting, and Emily Taubenblatt, a sophomore majoring in environmental policy. The event was also sponsored in part by Temple Israel, the Beth David Congregation, Chabad of Binghamton, Temple Concord and the Federation of Broome County.

“It means a lot to have everyone come out here and do this, all of the support we received from the Jewish community in remembering the Holocaust,” Bedik said. “We really appreciate it.”