HARDIN COUNTY, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Holocaust survivor shared her family's story with families in Hardin County Wednesday night.

Alice Goldstein is Jewish and was born in southwest Germany. Her parents ran a home goods store, passed through generations on her father's side.

Reflecting on her early days in Germany, she said her feelings changed.

But when asked on Wednesday how she looks back on those days, Goldstein said, "it's sadness, that almost as much as anything."

Goldstein's earliest memories include neighborhood children coming over to play with her, and parents being well-liked in their small village.

Over time, that simple life, turned into oppression.

"I think the thing that stands out most in my mind is isolation," Goldstein said.

Goldstein said children stopped playing with her, because she was Jewish. She was one of the only Jewish children in the village.

Goldstein had been sent to live with family in another town to attend a Jewish-only school, as German schools were told to not let Jewish children participate in learning. 

Goldstein recounts the stories told as her parents store and home were raided and items set on fire.

"It was terrorizing for them," Goldstein said.

Goldstein also recounted the day her father and grandfather were picked up and taken to one of the Nazi's first concentration camps, Dachau.

This, all happening before war had even begun.

Weeks after her father was taken, he was released, on the condition her family would leave Germany within a year. 

Days after leaving, Goldstein said the war had begun.

"I'm very grateful that my parents thought to proceed to try to get visas as early as they did so that we actually did get out," Goldstein said.

While Goldstein and her parents escaped, other family died in concentration camps. 

"Evil can happen and bad people can take over very easily," she said.

Goldstein hopes spreading her message, to stand up against hate, will resonate with more people.

"What I'd really like, especially for school children to learn, is to stand up, do what is right for them and not hesitate."

Goldstein now lives in Lexington, but spent many years on the East Coast.

Goldstein shares her stories with school-aged children, but also wrote a book called "Never Again: One Holocaust Survivor's Story."

The inspiration to write her book she said, came from her grandchildren asking her to share her story.

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