MAINE, Maine — Charles Rotmil was born in in 1932 in Strasbourg, Germany, a city on the French border.
A year later, Adolf Hitler was nominated as chancellor of Germany, and the persecution of Jewish people, Jehovah's Witnesses, Roma populations, homosexuals, and people with disabilities began.
For the past decade, Rotmil has called Maine home.
But his story of survival as a hidden child is one he shares to educate adults and younger generations about the horrific events of the Holocaust and the 6 million people murdered by the Nazis.
Rotmil's sister and mother died in a train crash as they tried to flee the country for safety.
His father, Adi, was arrested during Kristallnacht or Night of the Broken Glass. On that night in November 1938, the Nazis destroyed hundreds of synagogues, Jewish-owned businesses, and other commercial establishments. Many Jewish people were arrested or killed, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Adi was sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland and murdered in a gas chamber, Rotmil said.
"What kind of people do this?" he said. "What kind of monster did we have at that time? That would do such a thing. I can't even imagine."
Rotmil and his brother survived the Holocaust by hiding with Christian families. He was among hundreds of children helped by Father Bruno Reyners, a famous monk who paired them with Christian families. Rotmil was taken in by the Luyckx family in Louvain, Belgium.
Rotmil said Father Reyners would knock on doors and say to families, "'I have a child who through no fault of his own is being persecuted. I need a place for him to hide. Would you take him?' Now ... this is a big risk. If you are known to have Jews, you could get executed."
"I'm forever grateful to him and the church," Rotmil said.
Rotmil is 89 years old. He among the last living generation of Holocaust survivors.
For the past decade in Maine, he has been passing the legacy of the Holocaust to the younger generations by speaking in schools to students.
He is in the process of writing a book about surviving the dark times of the Holocaust.