Helen Kahan, celebrated her 100th birthday at a Tampa Bay Rays game. Kahan's family members, sporting jerseys with the word "Bubbi," joined her at the game.
The Rays won the game 5-4. Proceeds from the game went to the Florida Holocaust Museum, and the Rays Baseball Foundation presented the museum with an additional $10-thousand grant. Kahan has been sharing her life story with museum visitors for years.
Born Hani Sabo in 1923 in Romania, Kahan says she had a happy childhood. Then she she moved to Budapest to work as a seamstress, and returned to her family in 1944 when the Nazis occupied Hungary. The Nazi's grabbed her and took her to Auschwitz and transferred her to several concentration camps ending at Lippstadt. "I was only 21 when they took me and I lost so many people from my life," After the war, she married a fellow survivor, and they had two children. In 1967, Kahan immigrated to the U.S. with her family and went on to have five grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
When asked for advice for living a good life she said "Be strong and help everybody. Be good to people and just do the best you can do."
When asked for some final words on the evening Helen said; "Thank you for honoring me. I never could have imagined celebrating a birthday like this, let alone my 100th Thank you for honoring the Florida Holocaust Museum. I waited 100 years to do this and it was worth the wait"