Joan Salter's message to young people is that "even in the most terrible times, there were still individuals willing to stand up and say it [the Shoah] was wrong. When your life is in danger, it's hard to be the first one to stand up. We must not underestimate the courage that's needed."
London-based Mrs Salter was speaking before recounting her family's wartime experiences to Wednesday's national Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony at Guildhall in central London.
Her family's journey began when she was three months old. It took them through Belgium, France, Spain and Portugal, from where she was taken to the US without her parents and adopted.
Although reunited with her parents after the war, "it wasn't a fairytale ending. They were completely traumatised and my mother and I didn't even share a common language. I had forgotten my French."
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