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Holocaust Survivors Share Their Stories

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The U.S. Holocaust Museum may be in Washington D.C., but an annual Chicago fundraiser has become perhaps its largest fundraiser.

CBS 2's Vince Gerasole has the stories of those attending Monday's luncheon.

"It's tough every time I talk about it," Margot Walton of Highland Park said.

Six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. Walton came face to face with Nazi Germany's brutality when she was just nine years old.

"There was a knock at the door. Two SS people were at the door. They said 'You have 20 minutes to pack,'" she recalled.

The family was bound for a concentration camp. Of 26 members of her family, only her grandmother, her sister and she survived.

In Chicago Monday, the dwindling number of Holocaust survivors was honored.

David Huss of Skokie shared his experiences.

"I feel better to speak out," he said.

As they raise funds for the U.S. Holocaust Museum, for the good of all mankind, they vow to keep the stories of their survival and the deaths of others alive.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, himself a Jew, addressed the crowd with a poignant call.

"Where you see violence in the name of bigotry and hatred and ethnicity, where is your voice, what is your action?" he said.

Margot Walton raised a happy family and found a purpose in sharing the history she witnessed first-hand.

"It's something we cannot forget," she said.

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